You are on page 1of 91

THE

NAME

ALLAH

by

JACOBUS

ADRlAAN

NAUDE

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for ' the de gree of

DOCTOR

LITTERARUM

In the Fa culty of Arts and Philosophy,


December 1971.

University of Pretoria,
Pretoria.

University of Pretoria

ii
CON TEN T S

Page

Preface.
Abbreviations.
Concerning the transcription.

VOLUME
I.

Introduction.
A. Historical perspective.
B. The design of the study.
C.

D.
II.

vii

viii

The text of the Koran.


The orthography of the Koran.

12

Names in the Semitic world.


A. The special importance attached to names in

the Semitic world, with special reference to

the Arabs.
12

1.
The identity between name and substance.
12
2. Names of repute and disrepute.
1~
3. Names of association.
16
4. Th'(i ; 'ri~'rde' and death.
17

5.

Names of places.
6.
Aspects of the Koranic usage of names.

B.

18
19

The importance of knowing


the name of the god. 21
1. The powe~ of knowing a
name.
21

2.

3.
~.

5.

III.

Multinomial gods.

Anonymous gods.

.
Avoidance of the name
of a god.
Prevalent use of the name of the god.
'

.."

The origin of the word Allah.


A. The Arabic side.
1. The faccal formation.
2. Allah
al+ilah.
al+lah.
3. Allah
4. Time and place of origin of the name.

23

25
29
31
33

33

33

3~

39

40

iii

5.
B.

IV.

42

Syriac origin.

The ultimate origin of the word.

46

1. The relation s hip il:ilah.

47

2. The etymology of il.

48

3. Conclusion.

52

B. The evidence from South Arabia.

54

54

56

C. The evidence from North Arabia.

59

D. Allah according to pagan poetry.

63

E. The pre-Islamic Allah according to the Koran.

66

F. Hubal and Allah.

68

G. Moslem authors and Allah before Islam.

69

Allah before the advent of Islam.


A. 11 of Ugarit.

H. Pre-Islamic use of the name Allah by Chris


tians.

71

I. Pre-Islamic use of the name Allah by Jews in

v.

Arabia.

71

J. The Hanl.fs.

73

Allah in the Koran.

75

A. Allah as a name for the Koranic God.

75

B..

Characteristic aspects of the God of the Koran. 81

1. Allah is the living God.

81

2. The attributes of Allah.


3. Allah and the other gods.

85

89

4. Angels and other powers divine or demonic. 92

5. Manifestations of Allah.
6. The holiness of Allah.

97

98

7. The righteousness of Allah.


8. The faithfulness of Allah.

99

101

9. The love of Allah.


10. The wrath of Allah.
11. The wisdom of Allah.

101

12. The will of Allah.


13. Allah as king.

102

103

105

108

iv
The action of Allah according to the Koran.
1. The instruments of God's Action.
2. Allah, the creator of the world.
3. Allah and man.
4. Allah and history.
5. Allah and the religious institutions.
6. Some eschatological aspects.

C.

Allah in the early Moslem theology .


A.The first formal schism of Moslems.
B. The p~ecursors of the kalam.
C. The MuCtazilites.
D. The Ashcarites.
E. Final remarks.

VI.

VII. Resume.

109

109

112

115

117

-119
124

128

128

130

131

133
136
137

Appendix
Afrikaans Summary.
English Summary.

2.

VOLUME

II

I.

II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.

Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes

to
to
to
to
to
to
to

Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter

One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.

147

150

163

243

244

"

,~--- - ----

--

..

...~.-

- .--_._ ....-
.

177
202

v.

PREFACE

It is a little more than ten years since I


made my first acquaintance, quite unint entionally, with
members of the Moslem Community in South Africa. Their
deeply religious way of life, their meticulous observance
of religious precepts, and their arduous study of their
Holy Book in the Arabic language, made me take a profound
interest in the Koran, the centre of their faith. This
event changed the course of my life. Through a fortunate
combination of circumstances I had at the same time the
privilege to begin my university career under Professor
Adrianus van Selms, which led to the fact that I studied
Hebrew and Arabic as major subjects already for my first
degree. The keen interest of Profe$sor van Selms (Who sug
gested the theme for this dissertation) in my studies, has
always been an inspiration and a stimulation to mine still
deeper for the rich treasures of the Semitic languages. From
him did I not only receive all my knowledge of Arabic, but
he also shared with me his honest and respectful approach to
the Islam. I deem it a great honour to have been able to
finish this work under his competent . guidance. I wish to
take this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation to
wards him. It is my prayer that he will experience many
years of good health in retirement to pursue his love for
the Semitic languages.
I also remember dr. C.J.Labuschagne,
presently' of Groningen, who first introduced me to the
grammar and literature of the Hebrew language. I wish to
express my gratitude towards my friend and COlleague Prof.
W.C. van Wyk, for the interest he has taken in my work,
for his many kindnesses and friendship and for his help to
facilitate the completion of the present work,
both as
lecturer at the R.A.U. and as head of the Department of
Semitic Languages at the University of Pretoria. I wish to
thank my colleague Prof. H.S. PeIser,
chairman of the
Department of Semitic Languages at the Rand Afrikaans Univer
sity, for his warm friendship and complaisance over the past

vi.

six years. During these years I have learnt that his


modesty hides a sound scholarship \JJhich is still to be
appreciated in its full merit.
I mention in appreciation the teaching staff
of the Faculty of Theology of the "Nederduitse Gereformeerde
Kerk " of the University of Pretoria; especially Prof. H.D.A.
du Toit who taught Missionary Science at the time,

and Prof.

J.H. Kritzinger and later Prof. A.H. van Zyl of the Department
of Old Testament Studies.
Again I wish to thank the Rand Afrikaans

University and Messrs.R. Sagov and D. Susman for a generous


bursary which enabled me to visit the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem at the beginning of the year and gave me the
opportunity to acquaint myself with sources and research
inaccessible in South Africa. In this respect I also thank
the staff of the library of the Rand Afrikaans University.
I take this opportunity to express my
appreciation towards my friends, the ministers of the
Indian Reformed Church, particularly the Reverend Dr. C. du P.
Ie Roux and the Reverend G.J.A. Lubbe for their encoursgement
and scientific interest in Islam.
It is a heart-felt desire to thank my parents

who made many sacrifices to give me the advantage of a

university education. My deepest appreciation goes to my

wife, for years of blissful marriage and love. I thank her

for loving inspiration and invaluable help in typing the

unreadable manuscripts so accurately. I thank my little

daughter for much patience and understanding when we were

both occupied with the preparation of this work.

Finally and above all: Praise and honour

and worship be to God, our heavenly Father, for from his

fullness have we all received, grsce upon grace.

vii.

LIS T 0 F

A B B REV I A T ION S

AKM

Abhandlungen fUr die Kunde des Morgenlandes.

Al\1ET

J.B. Pritchard,

Ancient Near Eastern Texts

relatlng to the Old Testament,

1959.

ARW

Archiv fUr Religionswissenschaft.

CIS

Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum.

EI

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (old edition).

ERE

J. Hastings,

IC

Islamic Culture.

. JAOS

Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics.

Journal of the American Oriental Society

JBL

Journal of Biblical Literature.

JEOL

Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux.

JJS

Journal of Jewish Studies.

JNES

Journal of Near Eastern Studies.

JSS

Journal of Semitic Studies.

MW

The Muslim World.

OLZ

Orientalistische Literaturzeitung.

PRU

J. Nougayrol etc.,

ThW

G. Kittel,
Testament.

. TLZ

Le Palais Royal d'Ugarit, 1955ff.

Theologisches

W~rterbuch

Theologische Literaturzeitung

zum Neuen

. . ..

UF

Ugarit-Forschungen.

UM

C.H. Gordon,

Ugaritic Manual,

UT

C.H. Gordon,

Ugaritic Textbook,

VT

Vetus Testamentum.

WM

H.W. Haussig,

WZKM

Wiener Zeitschrift fUr die Kunde des Morgenlandes.

ZA

Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie.

ZAW

Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft.

ZDMG

Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft

ZDPV

Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins.

W~rterbuch

1955.

1965.

der Mythologie, 1965.

Viii.

CONCERNING THE TRANSCRIPTION

a.

What is given here,

lS

the transcription of the Arabic

a1phabet in the sequence of that alphabet.


cription resembles that of the EI.

The trans

The first letter of

the alphabet is usually not indicated in vocalized words.

th
~

kh

dh

sh

b.

When ~, wand

<

are used as matres lectionis they are

not indicated apart from the transcription of the vowel.


Similarly wand

are represented by vowels when they

are used in diphthongs.

c.

Vowels are transcribed as

~,

i, u.

The matres lectionis

(letters of elongation) are generally not indicated


separately,

but represented by a circumflex over the

relevant vowels viz.

~,

i, and

u.

Where it was considered

necessary to indicate a mat e r lectionis it is added one

e .g. the l in IsmaciYl.

space above the line,

No

distinction is made between Alif maqsQra and Alif


mamdlida.
d.

Harnzat al-Wasl

lS

not indicated as such.

The specialist

will know where it must be applied In distinction from

hamzat al- qat


e~

A letter with Tashdid


letter twice.

to the

lS

represented by writing that

The assimilation of the definite article

6o-G~11ed

aun-letters is not

in~icated.

combination with the previous rule we transcribe


e.g. bait
f.

thus,

al-ra~ul.

Final vowels and nunation (Tanwln) are generally not


indicated.
the line,

g.

In

When it is indicated it is written above


e.g. al-bait u

The female ending of nouns is indicated with final -a


(e.g. in kunya) in the absolute state,

and with final

-at if the word is in the construct state.


h.

Where it is suitable the same transcription is applied


to the other Semitic languages.

The expert reader will

be able to determine the values of letters and vowels


not contained in the list above by comparison with their
untranscribed forms.
i.

This applies especially to vowels.

In well-known words like Koran,

Mohammed,

common English spelling has been retained,


gur'an,

Mu~ammad,

etc.

8tC.,

instead of

objectionable as

may be from the viewpoint of the Arabist.

the

it

AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING

r:ehe name Allah ll.

Titel:

II

Outeur:

Jacobus Adriaan Naude.

Promotor:

Professor A. van 8e lms.

Departement:

SemitiGse Tale.

Graad:

All~h lS

die Islam .

die naa m van die God van die Kora n en

In die Semitiese idioom verteenwoordig die naam

van God die wesenlike a ard van sy lew ende natuur en ma nif es
teer die totaliteit van sy goddelike p e rsoon .
ondersoek van die naam

In b e studering van sy ganse we se .

All~h

Die naam

Daarom is In

All~h

kan etimologies verklaar word

as van suiwer Arabiese oorsprong naamli.k In kombinasie van


die bepaaldo lidwoord al met 1i h,
wat betehcn "god".

of die variante vor-m iJJ\g ,

Die naam word in Sinai gevind waar dit

in Nabatese inskripsies uit die d e rde eeu v . C. Gcbruik


ma C-ell' waarsl::- ynlik kom d i e

na~Lm

reeds

17001'

in die Lihyanies8

in s kripsi es 'Jat t e r ugd3teor tot die vyfde eeu v.C .


AI L:'h

hOll

lS,

Die

WOOI'd

ve r b"m d me t die al g cT!l 8 n .S emi t i ese I l/lc, l met ' l h a s

tu sscnvorn'.

' lh mo et verklaar word volg ens die versky n s e l van

di e II zwe ig ipfli ge Akz ent" i n ou Suid-Ara bies .


Die Uga rit ie s e t ek s te cn d i e No or d - en Suid Arabi es e mat eri a nl is e enste mm ig d a t I I di e bel angr ik s te god
in die onderske ie pan theons

Ja s maar da t hy ,

as g evo l g van

11

sy oude rdo m,

verva ng I S d eu ' and e r go de .

Die Ara b iese

teofore name ge e ook a andag aan ' 0 ve r houding tus sen god
en mens .

Die Ara bi ese

po~sie wG er sp ie ~l

die uiters te

dckadensie v an d i e heid endom ko rt voor die koms v an die


Islam~

Di t v erbilld Allah

ffiP- +-v

C~.l'
e T/\.no.c) e ba
J

~1' 1 em
rOS.

t
1
ou-eurs
ne t

vanouds suggeree.-c' dat die Nabatese Qurai s h Allah ui t die


Noorde na Mekka gebring het.
deur die Jode,

lik

Die gebruik van die naam Allah

Christene en Hani fs het daaraan In uitsluit

monote~stiese

ko nnotasie

Mohammed voort ge sit sou word.

gegee , wat in die prediking van


Volgens die Koran het die

heidense Arabiere All ah as ' n veraf ontoe ga nklik e Oppergod


beskou.

Daarom het hulle afgode as middelaa rs

be~odig .

Mohammed het daarop aanspraak gcmaak dat hy net die Arabiese


godsdiens reformcer tot sy oorspro;l1clike suiwer vorm.

Ooreenkoms tig Joodse gebruik het Mohamme d di e


uit spra ak van d i e eiena am van sy God aan die begin van sy
loopbaan vermy,
tydperk .

in die besonder gedurende die eerste Mckka anse

Die Koran argumenteer nie am die bestaan van All&h

te bewys nle.

Die teenwoordigheid van die lewende God ln

hierd ie wercld word konkre et ui t ged r uk in 8.11troponorfe


taal .

Dit doen nie afbreuk aan ' n v e r he we geestelik e verstaa n

V8.n die trans end en te God nie .

Die Ko r an bekl emt oon da t Alla h

ve rhewe i s bo enig e gen eu lo gi es e band e .


die bena mi nG ab ,

vad e r,

M o ~a m

ed he t nooit

vir Al lah geb ru ik nie em in hi erdie

op sig v e r s k il s y pr ediki ng van die a geme en Semiti cs e be g rip


v an.2 ,

' lh.

Die aanbidding van va l se god e,


opsigte die pre s ie0

wat in aI le

tee noo rgcsteld es van All r h i s ,

h ou ' n

111

bedreii2o' ing Vlr di e kosmie se vle r eld.or.d(c->

D'1e enge l e 1S
'

.L'l}. -

bloot die uit vo8rd.e rs van God se hc3"'l de linge met c.,ue men ,s "
'

Satan verteen l oord j.g a1 die magte in op stand te en

ma'r

Al l~h

hy is volkome onderworpe aan Allah wat die uiteindelike


outeur

v~j,n

al die k VFJad is "

In sy handele met die mens openbaar Allah


homself as heilig,
lief maar

sy toorn

die ondankbare

ontvlaffi ~een

Allah se kennis is vo lillaal~ en


wysheid .

Hy het die gelovige

genadig en regverdigo

hy tSt:t:
~AA

1 '

J1'nt! g(j; o\:nge aanaeel aan


U

Die spanning tu s sen die vrye wil van

alles bepaa l

en die ver3.ntwoord e like vryhe id

wil word in die Koran gehandhaaf.

ongelowige~

All~h,
V ElD

sy

wat

die mens l ike

All &h word dikwels be skrywe

in terme van 'n aardse koninG.

Allah is nie

absoluu~

transend ont nie.

Sy

imaanen si e 1n hierdie we reld tnI'd openbaar in sy skeppende


handele en 1n sy h a ndele met die me ns.
mont van die handele van

All~h

is sy woord,

skepping die si gbare vormg e wing


asp e k is.

Die werklike instru


waarvan die

en die Koran die kommunikati ewc

Die skepping getuig van die onontkomb 3re mag en

die onv c rgelyklikhc id van Allah.

Di e mens behoort hom i n

aanbi 3.di ng tot Allah t e wend mp- t da nkb aarh o id vir al die gawes
van dis skeppin g .

All ~h

het die me n s us pl aas vervan g er op

om hom te dien en
lS

All a h ko s baardcr as sy fam i l i e,

s y l ewe .

Vir die gelowi ge


sy besi tt in g s,

e n selfs

Die men s moet die les s B van di e geski e d e nis le e r

wan t da arin \llO rd d i.e hand e 1 8 1Ta n AllA h met die me ns domonstrcCl.'.
Di e mens mo et All&h i n 'n ri tue el r e in to estand aanb id d eu_

iv
sy naam Hl die salat -be ve rmeld_ eo deuT' aalmoese t e geo'.
All ~ h

ontvang TIle die vIe e s en blo e ) van

die toewyding van di e gelowige.


" J'oP
Q

hU,_i S

II _

1TClll
V G. _A]
_

l a"h If
,

off8r~

ni e,

maa r

Die s8ntrale plek van die


lord in die Koran gehandhaaf .

Verdienstelike we r ke word aangeneem tel' verso eni ng van

so ~d 2s,

maar die Koran bekl emtoon die noods aaklikhe id van

b e keri~lg

Op die Oordeelsd3C sal alle

die

verdige

reg~8r,

skepsele voor AI1h,

reg

verskyn wat sal regeer in onbetwiste ma jesteit o

Daar is ni~ In evolusie in Moh~mmQd


begrip nie.

AG

Gods

In die latere k a l g m van die Isl am is die

Koran i ese begrip van

AII~h

v a reng am uiteindclik . op te gaan

in die van ' n filosofie s o Absolute

~ese.

Allah was besig om in die vergetelheid te


ve r sink ma D,r deur die prediking van

~1oham m ed

issy posisie her 'tel.

Die Ko r amiese Godsbegrip is wesen lik c1ieselfde a s


Ou Test a ment.

v a n die

Die geheelb ee ld word nie deur die eticse leer

van God se streng geregtigheid bepaal nie,


onontkombar r?,

dH~

maar deur die

onheperkte vrye mag van die Sk e pper me t die

om'lf skeidbare en lo giese komplcL:cnt du. ~ AllGh die enig ste

E~

GLI SE

Sm'1:vfAHY

Title:

The name Allah.

Author:

Jacobus Adri aan Naud .

Promoter :

Professor

Department:

Semitic Langua88sa

Degree:

D. Litt.

A~

van Se1ms.

AllAh is the nam e of the God of the Koran and


of Isla m.

In Semitic idiom t h e name of God rep res ents th e

e ssen ti a l nature of his living being and manifests the to


tality of his divine person.
into the n a me All &h

Therefore an investigation

a study of his person.

1S

The name All&h can etymo lo gical ly be ex plain od


as of pure Arabic origin V1Z . a combinat ion of the definite
artic l e al with 1-.8.h,

or its variunc ilah,

meaning" god" .

The nama is found on Sinai in Nabat a ean inscript ions


the third century B.C.,

but pro b:'lbly the nam e already occ urs

in the Lihy&nic i ns criptions datin g back

B.C.

from

t~

the fift h

cen tu. rv
<.I

The word All a h is r elated to the co mmon Semitic I "h/ E l

of i-i hich the interme di at e 'l h i.s an e xten s ion to b e explain ed


after

~l"le

phe no me n on of th e "zwei g ipf lige Ak z e nt" in

Th e
Ar" bi a n mat e r ial

U g ar i ~ ic

" 'l g ~'ee

th e ir p a nt heo ns b ut

t e xts a n d t he No rt h and South

that 1 1

t ~13. t,

ancLcmt

as the mo st im po rt s.TIt

b e c ~u se

of h i s

8. b e

g od i n

h e c o-me to

t~ o

II

r e pl gced by other gods.


gl

ve

The Ara bi a n

the o ~ or i c

t ten t ion to the relat ion.::J'lip bt,t;vH?en god

names a l s o
L nd mEL1.

Arabic po et r y reflects the extreme dccad.enc e of paganisr:l


shortly bef ore t he adve nt of Islam .

It conn ects

All~h

Anci ent Mosl em authors su g~ est that the .abat aean

the Kacba.

Quraish iDtroduc ed
the name Alla h ,

A ll~h

Je ws

f ro JI the North i:'J00

l\i~;ccaQ

Using

Chris t ians and Hanifs g8_ve it an

exclusive monothe istic cOJnot~tion to be continued lD


preachinG

with

Accordingto tr10 Koran

of QJammed.f

the

the pagan

Arabs experienced Allah as some distant unapproachable


supr eme God"

Therefore they n eeded their idols as inte r c essor s.

Mohacimed claimed tha t he was only

the Arab r e ligion

res t o~in g

to its oriGinal pure form&

After the example of J e\ ,Ij_sh custom Moham:ned


avoided pronouncin G the prop e r name of his God at the
be ginning of his career,
Meccan period.

particularly during the first

The Koran does not arGue to proof the exis

tence of Allh.

The presence of the living God in this world

is concretely expressed in anthropoBo rphiclanguage .


does not i mpair

8_

highly spiril;ual u:1.Qc:ciitandi::lg of the

transc endent God .

The Koran emphasiz ed that

above any gene alO Gic a l tie s.


ab ,

f a th8r ,

This

All~h

i s exa lt ed

Moha mm ed never appli ed the ti tle

to AI Hi h a nd in this r es pect his preaching

diffe rs fro m t he c ommon d es i gn ation

of~,

Th e wo rship of fal se gods )


r esp ec ts the exa c t oppo sites of Al l ah ,
t o the co sm ic order

o~

th e un i verse .

'lh"

who

;u'o

in a ll

c onstitut es a -hreat

The an g I s arc mer 1;

iii

the C(1::.ctors of God 1 s dealings with man.


all

in revolt against Allh,

pO~2rs

Sa t an r epr es ents

but he is completely

subjected to All&h who is the ultimate author of all evil

In his action towards man AIMh reveals himself


as holy,

merciful and just.

He loves the believer but his

wrath inflames against the ungrateful disbeliever.

Alllh1s

knowl edge is perfect and he shares his wisdom with the


believer.

The ten5ion between the free will of

determines everything,
huma n will,

All~h that

and the responsible freedom of the

is preserved in the Koran.

described in terms of an ea rthly

All&h is often

kin g ~

All&h is not absolutely transcendent.

His

i mmcmence in this world is rev()i11cu in his creative action


and his dealings with man.
action is his word,

The real instrument of

All~h's

of which th e creation is the v isual

configuration and of which the Koran is the ve rb a l aspect.


Creation

bears witness to All&hts inescapable power and

his incompa rab ility.

Man should turrt in grateful worship

to Allo,h on accoult of the beneLits of 8reation"

All{lh appointed

man as viceroy on eart h to serve and pralse hima


holds AllAh dearer than his family,

Th e believe r

his posses si on s ,

a nd

even his life.

Man s h ould learn th e lessons of hi st ory for

in them All a h

ac tion towards man is d e monstr9.te d"

I S

Man should

worsh ip Al lah in a ritually pure stat e by me ntio nin g his


name in t h e s a lat and by giv i n g alms .
the

f l e~3 h EU1

.) 1 00d

o f sa c r i f ic es ,

but

All h do e s n ot rec eive


t"~o

de vo ti on o f the

iV

bel iever .

The ce nt ral po si tion of t he Ka c ba,

of All ah ",

1S

ma int ained in the Ko ran .

th e "ho ~Ge

Me ri toriou s de e d s

are accept e d in exp i qtion of sin but the Kora n stresses the
necessity of re pent a nce.
will

app e~ r

unrivalled

On the Day of Judge me nt all creation

b e fore Allah the just Judg e who will rul e in


ma j es t y~

There is no evolution in Mohammed ' s conc e pt of


Allah . In later Islamic

k ~l am

the Kora nic concept of All a h

was narrowed to be finally lost in that of a philosophical


AbsoluLe Being .

Allah was sliding back into oblivion but was


restored by the preaching of Mohammed .
1S

His concept of God

ess entially that of the Old Te s tame nt.

The total image

is dominated not by the ethical doctrine of God ' s stern


justice,

but by the inescapab le ,

the Cre ator,

with the insep a rable and logical co mpl e ment

that Allah is the on l y God


. thankfulness.

unlimited free power of

-~

to him man should turn in

C HAP T E R ON E

INTRODUCTION

C~ ~i
/

'"
I .,

J:

0 ...,

.0;-; I

~
,.

One may find

lS

I' 0 I'

.....

fJ1;' J6

'"

)F ~

"~
C--I

A dark green
pious Moslems:

II

I' I'

.)Ji,

.. J

L-JI~
.
.
~

.,

..

'"

the favourite colour amongst


it used by the orchestra

marching through the streets during religious celebrations;

it

is the background-colour of the crescent and the star on


Moslem flags;

one may find it the colour of the domed roof

of the mosque,
walls;

in beautiful contrast with its whitepainted

and in the Old City of Jerusalem one may read the

name Allah painted in green on the door of a house,


off evil spirits.

to ward
1
Green is said to be the colour of Allah ).

It is a visual reminder of "the everlasting,


presence of God.

all-embracing

From the top of the minaret the name Allah

reverberates five times a day in the ears of believer and


unbeliever alike and no other name is formed as frequently on
the lips of the Arab.

A.

Historical perspective.

The aim of this study is to examine the


meaning and contents of this name as it is portrayed in the
Koran.

Surprisingly little attention has been given to this

subject as yet.

In

1779

one Haller wrote his Lehre von

Gott ~us dem KoranJ;ezogen and it seems that a certain


Dettinger dealt with the subject in his Beitra~zu ein er
Theologie des Korans,

1831.

The beginning of the twentieth

century saw the publication of The Moslem Doctrine of God

(1905)

by S.M. Zwemer and a booklet The Muslim Idea of God

(1909)

by W.H.T. Gairdner.

Both works are extremely polemic

and apologetic in character and the latter hardly


mentionin6.

Since then no monooraph

deserves

appeared on the Gubject

to the best knowledge of the present writer.

Its treatment

is commonly restricted to haphazard articles in encyclopaedias


where the focal point is the various interpretations of the
Kalam.

Elsewhere it is hidden in a few pages of works intro

ducing Moslem theology or in biographies of the prophet


Mohammed.

A scientific treatment from Moslem side is still

to be written.

In 1948 Nashwan
ibn Sa'id al-Himyari published
-

an Arabic work in rhymed prose on the uselessness of striving


for a conception of the nature of God. Daud Rahbar, in his
dissertation 2 ), was justified in his observation that no
. scientific answer has so far been given to the question
concerning the Koran's conception of

God~

Originally intent

on writing a history of the first nine centuries of Moslem


Ethical Thought,

Rahbar finally reverted to the Koran itself

to search for the dominant note of the Koran's doctrine of


Allah.

He found it to be the ethical doctrine of God's

stern justice.

H. Kraemer drew attention to a new way of

3.

rethinking old values in modern Islam,

brought about by

its confrontation with the \1estern philosophy and way of


,
teeming with inventivlty
and restless ac t'lVl't y 3)

life,

One line of thought frequently recurring is that the rigidity


of the Islam is the result of a wrong interpretation of its
basic principles and especially of the Koran.

A correct

reinterpretation of the Koran would show it the source of all


mo~ern

ideals and thoughts

1t)

Thus the Koran and its inter

pretation are agaln important instruments in the selfrevision and reformulation of

Exegesis on a

Islam.

scientific basis by a Moslem is encountered for the first


time in Rahbar's work.
holds much promise.

Should it gain wide acceptance it

It is our conviction that the gulf

between the ahl al-kitab and Moslems can best be bridged


where later dogmatic judgments and prejudices are precluded.
Christians can best understand the Koran and its significance
where exegesis is nothing more than areformulation,a trans
lation of the meaning of the Koran in the idiom of our time,
because the apostolic service of Mohammed existed only in
the "tradition,,5) of the wo;ds and deeds of God,
as indistinct as he received it himself.

..

B.

as clear or

The design of the study.

The purpose of this study is an honest attempt


to listen to and to understand the text of the Koran,

based

on principles of sound exegesis.

Since Allah was the centre

of the preaching of the PrGphet,

the theme of our study

forced us inevitably and involuntarily in the direction of

'~~------..--- --~--

4.

presenting an outline of Koranic theologyG

(It should

nevertheless be clearly understood that it has not been


our intention to write a theology of the Koran;

such an

undertaking would exceed the proper limits of the present


study.)

We attempted to listen to the me ssage of the Koran

itself,

searching for the meaning of an

ay~

in the context,

avoiding the traditional interpretations of the tafsir on


,

purpose

6)

Even the meanings of words were determined by

their contextual usage and comparative

Semit~c

philoloBJ,

rather than by the dictionaries --- for the traditional


interpretation exercised an influence on the subsequent
meanings of words too often accepted at face value in the
study of the Koran.

Furthermore the Koran is repeatedly inter


preted against its Judaeo-Christian and pagan Arab

backgroun~

We consider it wrong to doubt the genuineness of Mohammed's


experience of his calling as a prophet.

We also do not belong

to those happy people who search endlessly for sources from


which Mohammed could have copied his sayings and deny him all
originality.

In the course of our study we came under the

impression' of the close proximity in religious thought between


the Koran and the Old Testament.

(We take this opportunity

to express our indebtedness to the results of the scientific


study of the Old Testament.)

The Koran itself claims to be

a continuation of Jewish and Christian faith 7 ).

Consequently

we quote biblical and other material only to gain a better


understanding of the Koran.

In fact we deem it rather difficult

for somebody who has no knowledge of the religions which

5.

existed at the time in Arabia to understand

the full import

Mohammed's preaching must have had on his hearers.

For the

Koran is only seemingly (and at that quite deceivingly)


simple and boringly repetitious --- systematic study turns
it into a most fascinating document of faith.

We may add

that we had neither intentional bias nor polemic or


apologetic purposes with the compilation of the present work.

This 6eneral introduction

followed by

i~

phcnQffivnolODiv~luUIyeJ of the Bemitic c~nce~t ~f


name and its significance.
Arab nomenclature.

a~r~~er

Special reference is made to

This chapter not ' onlY justifies the

contents of this work to sail under the flag of its title,


but it also illustrates that the name Allah is never a
meaningless instrument of reference.

The mention of the name

Allah brings with it an immediate experience of his presence


and his action in this world.

The importance of the etymo

logical meaning of names made such an investigation of the


name Allah necessary and showed the relationship between
Allah and the Semitic god Il/El.

Since Mohammed clearly

stated that Allah was worshipped by other peoples long before


" <.,

his own mission to the Arabs,

:;

and that he was proclaiming

the same message to his own people,


review

'

we were compelled to

Allah before the advent of the Islam;

meagre our information may be.

Particularly regrettable is

the political situation in Arabia,


proper and

however

which never favoured a .

unhindered scientific expedition to retrieve the

wealth of inscription and other material buried in the

6.

deserts 8 ).

Furthermore not all the available inscriptiona l

material has been published as yet and much work remains to


be done in the fields of interpretation and systematization.
The present study is concluded by a few remarks on the
concept of AII&h in early theological controversies and
developments of the Islam.

This is followed by a synopsis

of the conclusions reached.

on the person

We do not pretend to have spoken thG l~gt


of All~h and more particularly the Koranic

doctrine of Allah.
living God in

wo~d

Man will never be able to catch the

fallible "

words or dogmas.

In this respect

we share the sentiments of Jerome: 'Remote as we are from


perfect knowledge,

we deem it less blameworthy to say too

little rather than no~hing at all,g). L. Gardet referred to


the difficulty to classify and pick out the themes concerning
God,

without a risk of breaking the very rhythm of suras and


verses 10 ). In addition it should be noted that the attributes
of Allah are revealed in his action towards man with the result
that the distinctions made in chapter five should not be taken
as separations or dissociations.

Every ,subject should be

read in the context of the whole.

It is our hope that this study may be a humble

contribution to the renewed interest of Moslems in the Koran

and Koranic interpretation.

It is an interest we hope will

also be shared by Christians who care for the salvation of

these people.

7.

c.

The text of the Koran.

The only authentic source for a study of


11
Mohammed's concept of Allah is the Koran ). Modern study
has not raised any serious question regard:iJlg the authenticity of
the Koran.
Shica,

It is clear that charges of mutilation by the

or other religious groups,

assumptions.

are founded on dogmatic

The text on which the present study is

based~

is the textus receptus of the standard Egyptian edition.


Where the verse-numbering of Flligel's edition (which has
been generally used in the West until recently) differs from
it,

Flligel's numbering is indicated in parentheiis.

As far as extra-CUthmanic codices are concerned


our sources indicate that there were indeed variations in
reading.

The variant readings chiefly affect the vowels and

punctuation due to initial deficiencies of the Arabic script;


but occasionally there is a different consonantal text

12

).

It is imperative to understand that the value of the variant


readings to establish an original text of the Koran is
practically negligible 13 ).

Even a cursory perusal of the

. material reveals that it is almost always of a secondary nature,


when

tested

by

the rules of textual criticism.

consists of glosses,
unacceptable sayings,

of attempts to remove theologically


or of efforts to correct the grammar

or punctuation of the Koranic text.


will suffice:

Thus it

One relevant example

In Sara XXIX, 2(1)f. it i~ implied that God's

knowledge is imperfect since he has to test man lIin order to

8.

knowTl who are the

liars~

This was found obj ec tionable 9-nd

c
consequently the repeated falaya_lamanna
was changed to

falayuClimanna with the result that according to the variant


reading Allah will "make knownTi who is a liar and who noto
It is therefore sound scholarship which induced Ignaz
Goldziher to treat textual variants as the first step of
Koranic exegesis in his study Die Richtungen der islamischen
Koranauslegung14) With regard to the subject of the present
study this writer is aware of only one instance where the
textus receptus seems to be secondary:

The learned of Kufa

and also cAbdullah ibn Mascud readca~ibtu instead of the

C a 3:.jibta

of the vUlgate in SUra XXXVI, 12.

It would seem that

the vUlgate accepted the latter reading to avoid Allah as the


subject of a verb of amazement.

D.

The orthography of the Koran.

The attentive reader would have noticed an


incongruity between the spelling of the name Allah on the
cover and title-page,
study.

and its spelling in the corpus of this

The spelling Allah (with a short a in the second

syllable) in the title is our only concession to the pronun


ciation of the name in the mouth of the Prophet himself,
just as he said quran and not qur'an
Koran philologically and,
the rhyme,

in some

Uti

To understand the

ins~ances,

to understand

it is necessary to present here a short review

of this matter.

9.
Mohammed spoke a Meccan dialect which deviated
In many forms from the poetic koine.
of the Koran is the Meccan dialect,
poetic idiom (Brockelmann),

Whether the language


slightly adapted to the

or the po e tic koine its e lf,

with unconscious backsliding into the Meccan dialect1 5 ),

it

is clear that the incongruities between the consonants on the


one hand and the vowels and the other punctuation marks on
16
the other, are due to dialectic differences ).

The scholars of Kufa and Basra conformed the


fixed consonantal text of the Koran to the,

in their opinion,

perfect language of the poets by introducing special extraconsonantal signs.

This was the only alternative since the

consonantal text was considered as holy and could not be


tampered with.

The result was that this orthography which

was invented especially for the Koran became a whole ortho


graphical system in which the dualism between the ketfb of
the consonants and the qe re of the external signs was retained.
After the example

of . ~he

Koran it subsequently became the

. standard orthography for Arabic.

..
The position can be best explained by means

of a few examples.

The Meccan dialect apparently gave

preference to forms which words were known to have in poetry

only in the pausa1 17 ) position.


can be explained:

In this way the t~, marbuta

In Mecca feminine words were pronounced

with a final -t only in the construct state (as in Hebrew);


in the absolute state the termination was -abo

In the

language of the poets the t was retained in the absolute

10.

state as well by an -atu~ ending (for un see below).


change the final Meccan -ah,
of the Koran,
language,

To

written in the consonantal text

into the i-sound demanded by the poetic

the two diacritical dots of the third letter of the

Arabic alphabet (the ta') were added to the ha',


ced as the ta,18).

and pronoun

Definite proof that the ta' marbuta of

the Koran was pronounced ha' in the absolute state,


furnished

by

Sura CIV,

lS

where we get a consistent assonance

only if ta' marbuta is pronounced as ha'

In the Meccan dialect the accent on words


different.

Thus they said ilah,

poets as ilah,

was

which was pronounced by the

according to the metre of their verses.

adapt the consonantal text to the poetic koine,

To

the alif

of-elongation (which could not be inserted in the consonantal


text) was externally added ln reduced size to the lam:

~~

became

~ I~

(for poetic

~~~

)19).

Meccan

Flligel went one

step further and inserted this external alif in the ' consonan
tal text of his edition of the text of the Koran,
establish a "correct" text.

to

Similarly the Meccan Allah

became Allah in the textus receptus as a qe~e perpetuum.

Other important innovations to the Meccan


consonantal text were the hamza and nunation,
had been eliminated in the Meccan dialect

20

both of which

).

Please note:

To facilitate the reproduction of this work

11.

the notes to all chapters were put together in a separate

volume.

It is imperative t o read t he text in conjunction

with the notes.

A separate bibliography is not supplied,

since it can be readily found in the notes.

It has not been

our intention to supply a complete bibliography on every


subsection.

As a general rule the author mentioned only works

which he could obtain and to which he is indebted.

Mention

should here be made of G. Flligel's Concordantiae Corani


Arabicae,

1842.

,,

"

C HAP T E R TWO

NAMES IN THE SEMITIC WORLD

A.

Th~~~ecial ~m~or~ance at~ached ~o

world,

1.

name In the Semitic

with secial reference to the Arabs ..

The

identit~

between name and substance:

Ancient man experienced a reality in the


spoken word,

which is unknown to the modern man accustomed

to reason in abstract terminologies.

To the Semite the spoken


1
word and the object indicated by that word was identica1 ),
and still is to this day.

This identity between a name and the substance


of the object indicated by it, is also true of proper names.
2)
..
In Egypt
and Mesopotamia the mere pronouncement 6f a new
name was already an act of creation 3 ).

At Sakkara in Egypt

the remains of clay figurines bearing the names of enemies


were found.

The common practice was to break these figurines

into pieces in order to destroy the name of the enemy in a


tangible way and thereby destroying the enemy himself 4 ).
Similarly the writer of the book of Proverbs,
to describe the end of the wicked,
expression:

when he had

used the awe-inspiring

liThe name of the wicked shall perish" 5 ).

The

Old Testament evidence indicates that the eradication of a


name

i~

the strongest expression of annihilation since it

implies complete annihilation.

This is the main theme of the

13.

fictitious complaint the woman from Te koa laid be f ore king


David that her husband's f amily are intent to wipe his name
6
and remnant f rom the face of the earth ).

The Egyptian practice to destroy an enemy by


destroying a clay figurine bearing his name has its equivalent
in the Arab world:

A mask of the enemy's face is made from

gypsum, verses 30-33 of Sura V is written on the face and

the enernJ'u name on the baCK. Then a dagger


the head where the name is written,

i~

DiQrCQd into

accompanied by the

formula "Oh angels of Allah, do the same to this person",


the enemy will drop de a d 7 ).
enemy knows your nameS).)
Jewish prohibition,
Coptic customs,

and

(It is therefore dangerous if the


The same principle motivates the

which has its parallels in Moslem and

to destroy any piece of p a per on which the

name of God is written 9 ).

It is a matter of common knowledge

that worn copies of the Koran that can no longer be used,

are

buried in the Moslem cemetery.

True to the common conviction the Arabs believe

that a boy with the name "Little donkey" cannot be blamed if

10

he acts as stupid as an ass ). In the hope that a change of


name will also change the substance of the matter,
victim of a snake is called "the sound one",

the

and a lion

not by its real name but for example "Jackal".

The old Arabs

loved to call their child r e n after abominable animals and thorny,


bitter plants~

In this way they wanted to ensure that their

child would not be hurt for:

"Der schone Name lockt an,

abschreckende feit den Trager und ist ihm ein Panzer;

man

der

14.

will lie ber dornig seln,


werden

ll

11 )

the quince,

als von den Ziegen gefressen

The Arabs do not love to receive flora like


jasmine or lilye

pretty and even harmless,

Although in itself useful,

they are IIDingen in deren ge- .

schcnkweiser Darbietung die Feinsinnigen ein bases Omen


sehen und die sie wegen der
mogen I112 ).

2.

in

ihrer Namen nicht

On the other hand they love to receive pomegranates,

lotusfruit,

diQQOVG~

H~sslichkeit

roses,

thG

nQffiGg

violets and peaches because they

th~r~6f ~vourable

omens

1j ).

Names of repute and disrepute:

With the advent of Islam this specialsignifi


cance

attached

to proper names was underlined.

The names

of two rival prophets of Mohammed were changed into their

corresponding hypocoristic forms,

to humiliate them and

14
Thus the names Maslama and Talha )

became Musailima and Tulaiha ~espectively. The hatBd uncle

make them despicable.

and enemy of Mohammed is derisively called Abu Lahab, IIfather


. of the fire of hell ,115 ) in the Koran and by Moslems.
real name was c Abd al-cUzza ibn c Abd al-~uttalib.

..

His

According

to Sura XLIX, 11 it is forbidden that believers should give


each other insulting nicknames.

On the other hand Arabs of

all times considered it a token of friendship and estimation


to call a person by his kunya

16

).

Both Caliphs Ma'mun and

Al-W&!Qiq used to call the singer Ishaq ibn Ibrahim al-Mausili


by his kunya,
Persian descent

Abu Muhammad,
18

).

to honour him 17 ) --- he was of

The exaltedness of Allah is repeatedly

confirmed in the Koran by the diction that the most beautiful

names belong to him

19 ).

The prophet Mohammed exercised great influence


on the Moslem nomenclature.

He purified names which could

imply the recognition of idols.


c Auf ,

Thus he renamed cAbd Amr ibn

one of his first adherents , to cAbd aI-Rahman ibn cAuf.

Henceforth

cAbd al-Rahman no longer replied when he was

called cAbd Amr20 ). His new name changed him into a new
per~Qn

21 )

In Al-Tibrizi's collection of traditions,


Mishkat

the

al-Masabih22~ the following sayings of Mohammed were

written down:

II

Rabah (Profit),

Do not call your servant Yasar (Wealth),


Na3:ji~

(Prosperous) or Aflah (Success).

For

you may ask if he is ' there when he is not and receive the
negative reply,

suggesting that the prosperity implied by

such names is absent.

Call yourselves after the names of the prophets.


The names dearest to Allah are cAbdAllah (Servant of Allah),
C Abd

al-Rahman (Servant of al-Rahman).

The second best names

-a-r-e-H-a-r-i-t-h-(-P-loughman)2 3 ) and Humam (Noble).

are Harb (Enemy) and f'.1urra (Bitterness)

According to Muslim,
compilers of the traditions of Islam,

The worst names

11

one of the six great


Mohammed prohibited

the use of the title Rabb for a human being because it is a


name of Allah in the Koran.

It is also inadmissible to call

16.

a slave c Abd ,

because this word may only be used to express

the relation of man

towar~All~h24).

From the advent of

Islam onwards it is conspicuous that we always encounter the


same names amongst Moslems,

according to these principles

stipulated by the Tradition 25 ).

All these data equivocally

stress the particular value the Arabs

26

) both before and

after the advent of Islam attached to the name of a person,


namely that the etymological or lexical meaning of a name is
an lmportant factor creating the character of the bearer of
that name or determining the events of life.

This principle

reminds one of the Old Testament where the etymology of a


name is often added in the text 27 ). In the Babylonian
creation epic the gods called out the fifty names of Marduk
with an explanation of its meaning after each name 28 ).

3.

Names of association:
Often the significance of a name is not its

etymological or lexical contents,


name recalls,

but the associations that


be it the circumstances at the birth29 ) or the

prestige given to the name by people who had it in the past.


This is the reason why names like
popular only after the Islam.

Ibr~him
kun~

and Mohammed became

was also often inher

ited together with a name because the particular kunya used


to be associated with that name.
lS

usually Abu

Ish~q

sister of

H~run II

Ibr~him

and according to Tradition Mohammed

explained the fact that Mary,


II

The kunya of an

the mother of Jesus,

is called

in the Koran (XIX, 28 (29) ) in a similar

way30)
Amongst the Arabs it was common practice to

identify a person by uSIng In addition to his proper name


also his kugL~ (usually formed with the name of his son),
the name of his tribe and the name of his birthplac e .

The
whose

tribal name

of

with

a forefather

name was so great that it put its stamp on all

generations after him.


rest

originated

the

The fame and esteem of an individual

not so much in his own excellencies but in the nobility

his ancestors.

The more famous members of his family

tre~he can name,

the greater

lS

his own

prestige3~).

In

his blood pulsates the virtues he physically inherited from


his forefathers 32 ).

Even to the present day it is not un

common that the Arab nomad can name his ancestors as far
back as ten to fifteen generations (i.e. over a few hundred
years) without being able to say how old he is 33 ).

Against
this background it is clear why the genealogy of Mohammed 34 )
is traced back to Ishmael and Abraham.
in the Koran as apostle and prophet,

Ishmael is venerated
as builder of the Kacba

and as the son who had an intimate relationship with his


father Abraham.

Abraham is praised in the Koran as the

eminent prophet who (like Mohammed) cam8 in revolt against


the politheism of his people,
Christian,

who was neither a Jew nor a

who called the believers Moslems and who was the

friend of God 35 ).

4.

The name and death:

Joh. Pedersen referred to the avidity with

which Babylonian and Assyrian kings erected inscriptions to

18.

"They would make sure that their

promulgate their deeds :


renQl.~n

their name In all its real greatness,

and act for ever 1l 36)

should live

In this context h e also refers to the

use of tombstones to perpetuate the name of the deceased and


thereby to immortalize the dead person himself (compare Genesis

35:20).

Although the prophet Mohammed

was

firmly

against the

veneration of the dead and the erection of tombstones 37 ),

the

latter custom especially gained wide acceptance amongst


Moslems.

On such tombstones,

which at times became an

entire mausoleum,

the name of the deceased was engraved


together with verses from the Koran 38 ). There is indirect
evidence that the
burial ceremony,

part at the
which was the task of the eldest son 39 ).

ku~~

played an important

The purposeful application of the name to the tombstone or


" 1 40 ) 0 f th e d
"t use a t th e memorla

d
l-S
ead t 0 ensure th e con t"lnue
existence of the deceased needs further investigation.

However this may be,

it is an ancient Hebrew custom to

continue a strong element of the name of the father in the

name of the son 41 ). Especia lly a posthume son received the

. patronymic so that it lives on in him 42 ).

If a man died in

Israel without having a son the perpetuation of his name was


ensured by means of the Levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:6f.).

5.

Names of places:

During the most important crisis of his career,


the preparation for the battle of Badr,

Mohammed was guided,

just as on othc occasions, by the names of places en


route 43 ). A place-name with an inauspicious meaning dis

19.

qualified the route on which it was situated .

In the converSlon of heathen traditions after


the advent of the Islam a number of pseudo-saints originated
in the course of time as old sanctuaries did not disappear,

but was
of

that

~aiut

linked

with

a fictitious person whose name resembled

the sanctuary.

Under the

cloak of

the cult was then continuGd. ~hug

tomb of the prophet c Akk who was,


the founder of the city44).

WQ

the

grave

of a

find in O!kka ~he

according to tradition,

This situation was possible only

because of a certain identity in the' eyes of the Semite


between a country or place and a person or people of the
same name.

The South Arabian inscriptions furnished

exampl es of this identity45).

further

This identity is also illustrated

by the usage of names like Israel,

Ephraim, Amalek, Edom,


Moab and Ammon in the Old Testament 46 ) as well as in the
indication of the place of origin contained in almost every
Arab proper name.

Some Arab authors are in fact known only

by the name of their hometown or homecountry.


case with

al-Bukh~ri

This is the

the great traditionist of the Islam.

Caliph Umar complained that the Arabs of Iraq no longer


name themselves after their ancestors, but after their
towns 47 ). This inextricable relationship between a place and
a person

lS

seemingly also the reason for the Koranic pro

hibition to demolish a building in which the name

All~h

is

often mentioned, XXII, 40(41).

6.

Aspects of the Koranic usage of names:


We indicated that the name of a person can in

20.

varlous 1f.!ays determine his character.


Koran that the wife of clmran,

We read in the

when she gave against her

expectations birth to a daughter and not a boy,


her feminity by giving

her a woman's name,

acknowledged

Maryam. Similarly

the disbelievers call the angels by names of women, indicating


that they believe the angels to be feminine in gender

L~8

Mohammed challenged the idol-worshippers to mention the names


of their idols,
their gods

in other words to prove the existence of

49 ).
Contrary to the determining function of names,

Mohammed taught that there can also be false names,


names without any reality.
more than mere names,

These names,

empty

which are nothing

are the names with which the idolaters

invoke their nonexistent gods.

These names are false and


without contents because Allah did not authorize them 50 ).
This new viewpoint of names without contents must be seen
as a later development in support of monotheism and the
negation of the false gods 51 ).

The Koranic verdict that All.h has no namesake


(Sura XIX, 65(66) ) is nothing less than a proclamation that
there is no god of the same being as Allah.

In the post-

Koranic controversies we encounter the verdict:


name of Allah is Allah 52 ).

The written

The overwhelming evidence 53 ) of the special


significance of names in the Semitic world,

confirms the

expectation that also the names of gods are not merely a

means of distinction.

It implies

that every inquiry into

the name Allah is incomplete if it does not include an


investigation into the nature of the God of the Koran.

B. The importance of knowing the


1.

of the god .

name

The pO'Ner of knmJing a name:

In the Semitic

imperative to know the

name

world

of

the gOd.

be effective if the one who prays,


the god 54 ).

it

was regarded as

A prayer

can only

knows the proper name of

For this reason the remark of Genesis 4:26 that

men began to call upon the name Yahwe in the time of Seth, is
not incidental.
"God ll may be

To us the difference between "LORD" and

insigni~icant,

but to men of antiquity the

knowledge of the name was the first requirement for any true
communication 55 ).

Knowledge of the proper name of the god


confidence 56 ) since knowledge of

gives the one who prays

the name gives the knower a certain power over the one who
is known.

A good example of this can be found in the

old

Greek epic the Odyssey where Homer described how one of the
Cyclops,Polyphemus,

tried to gain a hold upon Odyssey by

asking him his name.

The hero was prudent enough to furnish

the pseudonym,

"Nobody".

Thus he frustrated Polyphemus'

murderous plans and saved his own life and that of his men 57 ).

The power conferred by the knowledge of a

name is frequently encountered in the Old Testament.


'\

After

Jacob's nocturnal struggle with the' e lohlm


he asked his
A

22.

opponent's name to get a certain hold on him


numen was to be held fast,
summon it,

58 ),

lithe

for if one knew its name one could.

one could obligate it (by sacrifice,

for example),

one could even arbitrarily gesture,

i~e.,

divine power of this name,,59).

This

lS

clearest example, but the same

idea 18 at the root of the

13: 17 and.

analogous instance in Judges

conjure with the

certainly the

of

Exodus 3:13 where

Moses expects that the people will ask the name of the God
who sent him.

A.ccording to Psalm

believer because he knows his

91 :1L+- Yahwe will protect the

Name60~.

The prayer knows the

name of God and this knowledge becomes an instrument by

.
61)

which God can be prompted to help


Israel's power lS
contained in his knowledge of the name of God.
trust in chariots and horses,

Others may

but Israel is assured of a

victory over his enemies because he knows and invokes the


name of the LORD,

Psalm 20:8.

The power of the application

of the proper name of God is very realistically illustrated


in Psalm 118:10:

I1AIl nations surrounded me; it is with


the name Yahwe I cut them off I162 ). In the Koran (LXXXVII,

. 14f.) prosperity and success are promised to him who mentions


the name of God in prayer.

The name Allah ensured a safe

journey for Noah's ark (XI, 41(43)).

In popular belief the

mention of the name Allah can deter the Angel of Death63 ).

When the believer enters into relationship

with his god he starts by pronouncing his name 64 ), and this

ancient usage is continued in the liturgy of the Christian

church under the form of the invocation.

According to the

great systematic theologian of the Islam,

Fakhr aI-Din al

23.

R~zi,

who died in

1209 A.D.,

the formal confession of the

Moslem faith can take place only through the proper name of

G0 d_,
hIS

Alla"'h65 ).

Similarly when God takes the initiative

of revealing himself

he

starts by uttering

his

name 66 ).

The

correct as

name of the god should be gJ_ven as clear and as

possible in the prayer67 ) lest the prayer does not reach its
destination,

just as the pronunciation of the wrong name in

a blessing causes a person

for whom

rece:Lve

it, Ihc prereQUiBite

the god

1S

it

for evgry

that man knows his name.

was not destined to

Qommuni~~ti6i'l lN~ th

If man does not know

the name of the god he is exposed to an arcane will of which


the limits are undefined.

The conduct of this will is

mysteriously incomprehensible and because he does not know


its name he stands defenceless.
of the god,

this god materializesin a person with whom he

can come to an understanding,


history,

If however he knows the name

with whom he can traverse a

and of whom he can even avail himself.

The

Israelites did not rest before they knew the proper name of
their God.

With him they traversed a history and from this


history they could learn that he is Yahwe 68 ). On the other
hand the god of the German poet Goethe could not reveal
himself since he had no name 69 ).

2.

Multinomial gods :

Like all beings the gods need names for their


existence.
or epithets,

In addition they have a multitude of nicknames


and the more they have of them,

of appearance and power they possess.

the more forms

The names make their

24.

way prosperous 70 ).

It was also felt that one name can

never comprlse the full essence of the divinity_


one reason why Moslems speak of ninety-nine
besides the name Allah,
of his

character~

This lS

names of God

each illuminating a different aspect

It is interesting to note in this connection

the special preference of the Koran to mention the divine

attribut89 in

pairs.

When a god wishes to prevent other


men,

from getting a hold on him,

name secret.

or

he keeps his most important

A striking example comes from Egypt:

Re had many names,

gods~

The sungod

but the big name which gave him power

over men and gods was known only by himself.

The goddess

I sis planned to find out this name so that she may obtain
the power for herself.

She made a poisonous snake to bite

him and Re could recover only if he reveals his secret name


for "he whose na.me is mentioned, shall live" 71 ). On
occasion the Egyptian god Osiris was threatened that his name
would be called out aloud in the harbour of Busiris if he did
not grant a request72)

In an Egyptian papyrus it was pointed

out to the god Typhon that he was invoked by his correct


name s so that he could not refuse to hear the reque st 73)
According to Tradition Allah possesses a secret exalted name
known 6nly to 8 few individuals 74 ). All the wishes of him
who invokes Allah by this secret name will be fulfilled.
Amongst the Egyptian Arabs the pronouncement of the exalted
name of Allah can kill the living,

restore life to the dead

and work many other miracles for him who knows this name 75 ).

25.

proper name

Thus knowledge of the correct


of a god gives power - - even magical powers.

3.

An~mous

gods:

It is clear that the name of the god is


the utmost importance in the Semitic cult.

of

Nevertheless we

find lIunknmvn gods 1\ mentioned over the whole Near East.

Thus the mention of ilu sha


Accadian texts.
B.C.) we have,

idu u sha la

idu is frequent In

From the library of Assurbanipal (668-633


for example,

a prayer in a Sumerian dialect

with an interlinear Accadian translation in which the


worshipper invokes the god and goddess he does not know 76 ).

The invocation of the "god of N.N.


appellations,
was common

and similar

without mention of the real name of the god


in Arabia 77 ).

In Palmyra the flunknown god"

whose "name is blessed for ever " appears in


shortly after 100 A.D.
kind one,

fI

the merciful,

inscriptions

This god is given the epithets "the


the rewarding one",

altars are dedicated to him.

and numerous

He is the god who was approached

in case of personal difficulties and his worship is rather


different from that of the other cosmic and fertility gods
whose cult beared a

less individual character .

Although

this god later generally took the place of Bacal~hamin in a


triad with CAglib~land Malakb~l there are indications that
the unknown

god represents a certain spiritualising and

monotheistic tendency (possibly under Jewish or Christian


influence) in the religion of Palmyra 78 ) .

The sungoddess Shams

26 .
was anonymous l"n the old South Arabian state Saba ' where
she was merely indicated by the place of her first appearance
" . an d _adh~c ba c dan 79 ) .
or display of power as d:Q.at ~llmalm

----- - -

Also in Qataban this practice was followed

and Werner Caskel

regards such anonymity as a fundamental characteristic of


old Arabian religion 80 ) .

Anonymity is found in South Arabia

as ' well as i n North Arabia and from the fifth century B. C.


81
up to the advent of the Islam ) .

From the ?adith we know the


appellatives dhu~

al - khala~a

dh~
an d __u

of the gods of local sanctuaries .

anonymous

~82)
~l-~h
_ara
-

. d'lca t lve
"
ln

The latter was the most

important god of the Nabataeans and is known under the Greek


form of this anonymous name,

Dusares .

In Hellenistic times

Dusares was identified with the Greek god of wine Dionysus


but originally Dusares had nothing to do with wine 83 ) . The
proper name of the god referred to as Dusares remains unknown .

Although the names IllEl and Bacal have been


used as proper names8~),

they were at one stage

anonymous appellatives of local gods ,

like dhu .

employed as
This explains

c "
Ba al- Melkart ,

Biqca as well as the combination of Il/Ilah with placenames

in Thamudic 85 ) texts of a particular period 86 ) . Precisely

because both El and Bacal became anonymous epithets,


could replace one another .
Sichem ,

The same god ,

they

worshipped in

could now be called bacal - berit (Judges 9:~) and

then again el - berit (Judges 9 : ~6) .

2'7.

The best known example from Greek lit e rature


is Ac ts 1'7:23 where the r e f e rence of the apostle Paul to th e
altar in Athens ded.icat ed to lIthe unknown godr! is written
d owne

This reference finds its e quiva l ent in Greek a uthor s

like Pausanias,

Philostratus and Diogene s Laert e s.

Romans likewise distinguish ed b e tween di

_cert~

The

a nd di incerti87)

and In the Latin inscriptions we encounter the phrase sei deo


sel. d'
elva e 88)

We llhausen indicated that dem ons used to be


anonymous in Arabian pagani s m,

while names were most important

to the gods since they wer e the foundatio n of the cult and a
prerequisite for the dhikr,

th e tasbih and tahlil: tlDer


- .- -
unbenamte Gott ist d e r unbekannte Gott, dem nicht gedient
werden kann 89 ).

How can the common phenomenon of the unknown


god then b e explained?

Babylonian ma gic texts bear witn e ss

that the succe s s of a ritual was not only depend ent upon the
corre ct procedure and the correct offerin gs,

butaloo upon the


invocation of the proper nam e of the god concerned90 ).

Unfortunately the priest did not always know which god (or
d emon) caus e d the
th e stricken.

misfor~une

or can r e lieve th e distr e ss of

The ingenious soon found a solution.

By

invoking a long list of gods he hoped to mention the correct


name by chanc e so that the god concerned will b e comp e ll ed to
r ender help in accordance with the magic formul8.. by which
he lS bound 91 ).
passed over,

To ma k e completely sure that no god was


he turned in any case to the tlunknown god tl and

28.

the "unkno wn goddess,,9 2 ) .

The mention of the unknown god

in the literature therefore does not contrad ict the


importan~e

of the knowledge of the proper name of the god.

It is a measure of emergency which underlines the necessity


of that knowledge.

It should be remembered that the "unknown god"


here does not refer to some or other god in general ,
to that specific god who is responsible
fate of the prayer.

but

for the particular

Therefore it is logical that the unknown

god in Palmyra bears an individual character and even received


epithets like "kind" and "merciful".

The individual character

of gods who are indicated by combinations of dhu,

dhat,

bacal or a form of el and a placename is selfevident.

In

Hellenistic times the combination dhu al-shara became a proper


name in the form Dusares.

El and Ba al were proper names of

individual gods over the whole Semitic world.

It is interesting

that the initial anonymous appellation el shaddai 93 ), chiefly


used in Genesis,
Yahwe,

was later replaced with the . proper name

according to Exodus 6 :2 .

Here the proper name of

God became the possession of the people after further


revelation.

The tendency and aspiration is always to move

from the unknown god to the known god .

From the viewpoint

of the history of religions this must be the normal course


of events .

This is probably the reason for the tendency in

Palmyra to identify the "unknown god" with Bacalshamin.

The

ideal was to replace the anonymous appellative of a god with


the proper name of the god for a knowledge of this name enables

29.

communication with the god.

This aim could be achieved by

taking the anonymous appellative as the proper name;

by

replacing the anonymous appellative with a proper name;

by identifying

the anonymous god with a known god.

or

The

latter process is analogous to the addition of the names of


lesser gods in the form of epithets to another god.
All~h can be explain ed as an appellative (al-il~h)
b~came

4.

a proper

The name
which

name~

Avoidance of the name of a god:

Out of fear for irreverent misuse and


profanation of the proper name of the God of Israel it was
more and more replaced by anonymous names.

This was par

ticularly the case with the pronunciation of this proper name


which fell into desuetude to such an extent that it was later
for centuries wrongly read as yeh~w~ until modern scholarship
could establish the correct form Yahw~94).
tradition shows.the same trend.
Habakkuk-pe~~r

The written

It is conspicuous that the

from Qumran avoided the tetragrammaton by

using 81 instead 95 ).

In the text of Habakkuk itself,

as in

various other texts from Qumran,

the tetragrammaton was


represented in the old Phoenician script 96 ). In the first
Isaiah scroll from Qumran adonai is used on occasion where
the Masoretes read Yahw~ and vice versa 97 ).
scholars inferred that YHWH,

From this

whether it was written in

Phoenician or in th e square script, became a mere ideogram


98) In the fragments of Aquila and Symrnachus
for a donal

30.
found in the Cairo Geniza the proper name

Yahw~

was

represented in the old Phoenician script in the midst of

the Greek text.

According to Origin the tetragrammaton

occurred in the best copies of the Septuagint in the Hebrew

script 99 ).

Jerome informed us of the development

as follows:

"Quod quidam non intellegentes propter elementorum similitudinem,

cum in Graecis libris reppererint,

11 I

legere consuevenmtf I1,OO).

7T I

Thus the proper name sank completely into oblivion101 ).

The Koran

vJarns against the abuse of the

names of Allah under threat of severe punishment,

a lthou gh

it recommends the proper use of the most beautiful names of

102 ).

Allah

As we will indicate in a subsequent chapter

Mohammed himself initially avoided the proper name of his God


and it has been suggested that the Arabic translation of the
word Rahman,

viz. a I-Rahim was introduced into the basmala to

prevent abuse of the former 103)

The avoidance of the name

Allah is at the basis of the custom to cite the Koran,


ipsissima verba of Allah,
any further ad0 104 ).

by the use of the verb qala without

In Islamic mysticism the pronoun huwa is

employed instead of the proper name Allah.

Religious scruple

may be a reason why the names of gods so rarely appear


pagan Arab poetry.

I swear"

105)

in

It is apparently also the reason for the

circumlocution in the heathen formula:

the

"by the one by whom

In deference to Allah this name is not


pronounced in a latrinewmreonly the personal pronoun lS used
to implore protection against the demons

106 ).

In contrast the

31 .

pronunciation of the name Allah at the hot sprlngs of Tiberias


is

prohibited lest the de mons are angered and refuse to grant

healing of the illness

107

).

5. Prevalent use of the name of the god :

Everyday life reflects no scruple or reserve

108 ).

to use the name Allah

Musicians and

sin5ers of Egypt

are usually loudly applauded with repeated outcries of


"Allah !,, 10 9) . Frivolous and licentious gossip are often
accompanied by such outcries so that the uninformed will
think that they make fun of religion 110 ). In many of their
indecent songs the name Allah recurs many times and A. Fischer
could devote an article to offensive employment of the name
Allah by

Arabs111). '

The Arab will undertake no task without


.
.
112)
feeling compelled to pronounce the name Allah
The Koran
itself sets the example by introducing every sura (except IX)
by the formula: !lIn the name of113 ) Allah, the merciful ,
the beneficent r, .

Accordingly this formula is also pronounced

at the beginning of every meal although the Koran prescribes


it only when animals are eaten 114 )

. The name Allah is mostly used in everyday lif e


in protection against the demons who try to harm man at every
opportunity.

Already in the Koran we read that the mention


of the name Allah calms the heart of man 115 ) . The mention of
the name Allah is then recommended to the believer116 ) . The

32.

mention of the name Allah renders the demons powerless.


When somebody opens a container in the kitchen,
dark room or a bath,
water,

and so forth,

says something harmful,

enters a
falls,

spills

the name Allah is pronounced 117 ). To

achieve the same results the names of God are worn on amulets
and applied to the doors of shops and private homes 118 ). One
of the firat obligatj_ons after the birth of a

child in Egypt

is to whisper the adhan in the right ear of the baby119). Thus

itiB enBured that the newly born will know the name Allah
and is protected against the sUinn.

Although the Semitic languag e groups have


much in common,

the customs of one group are not necessarily

exactly the same as that of another group.

Every Semitic

nation put his own stamp on the common heritage.

This rule

also applies to the different g roups within the nation.

Therefore the pious Moslem will disapprove


some of the practices described in this chapter.

of

Nevertheless

nobody will contest the importance of knowing the proper name


of God.

Only a complete trust in and reliance upon the

beneficial and protecting power of the name peculiar to God


can explain its frequent use by Arabs.

The knowledge of his

name puts the omnipotence of Allah at the disposal of those who


surrendered to him.

The ninety-nine tlmost beautiful names tl had,

next to the name Allah,

great significance in the religious

life of Moslems through the ages to ennoble their lives and to


improve their relationship with God.

The full significance the

name Allah had for Mohammed will come to light in the course of
this study120)

,.

C HAP T E R T H R E E

TFill ORIGIN OF THE WORD ALLAH

A.

~he Arabic Side .

Gaining knowledge of the name of a god was for


the Semite like passing from the darkness of rniaery
into the bright sunlight.
of his god.

and fear

The name identifies the character

The etymology of the name Allah could therefore

be invaluable to determine the primitive conceptibn of the god


and possibly the place of origin of his cult. Unfortunately
1
the etymology of the word Allah is disputed ).

1.

The faccal formation:

It is interesting to note that quite a number


of names or attributes applied to Allah are of the formation

f~ctal which carries the basic idea of intensiveness or of


habit.

Nouns which indicate professions and trades usually

adopt this form ).

In the Koran we have e.g. the roots fkhr,

LV, 1L~(13);

XV,86;

twb,

khlq,

II, 37(35);

V, 109(108);

etc .,

~br,

rzq,

LIX , 2 -"7 , .,

LI,58;
ggfr,

qhr,

XII, 39;

XXXVIII , 66;

m,

applied to Allah in the faccal formation.

The list can be lengthened especially with the addition of


extra-Koranic names for Allah like al-dayyan etc .

The

tendency to make foreign names resemble Arabic formations is


well-known and is noticeable in the changes which a great

34-.

number of biblical names have undergone lnthe Koran 3 ).

The

name Allah can therefore be regarded as a faccal-formation of


the root 'lh.

In opposition to this solution it can be

pointed out that the root is not foreign,

but common Semitic

(Ethiopic excluded) and that contrary to the previous examples


the noun from the root

~h

probably preceded the verb which

is denominative in this instance.

Finally the Arabic ortho

graphy of Allah does not agree exactly with the faccal


formation.

We may rather suspect the

that attributes of

Allah

reverse process viz.

were readily used after the faCCal

pattern to resemble the name Allah.

2.

Allah

al+ilah:

Another solution, advocated by the school of


al-Kufa, is that Allahu is a contraction of the definite
article al- and the noun ilah un commonly used in Arabic and
meaning l1god l1

The original form would be al-ilah u

the vowel of the hamza

Then

to the 1 before it and


so that alilah u remained, origin

wastrffi~ferred

the hamza was suppressed,

ally written with alif of elongation in the consonants but


henceforth indicating the long vowel externally by the per
pendicular fatha resembling a small alif.

The former 1 then

lost its vowel and assimilated to the other,

resulting in

Allahu 4)

Some support for this explanation can be found


In Herodotus III, 8
Urania with alilat 5 ).

where the Greek historian identified


It seems that Herodotus knew the name

of the goddess Allat in the form slilst 1,I,Thich form equals


the Arabic al-ilat 6 ),

meaning lithe goddess".

If Allat came

from al-ilfit it is evident that Allfih could also be derived


from al-ilah.

Now the reading alilat in Herodotus III, 8

not indisputabl e .

8
The variant readings a liat 7) and alital )

are attested and therefore demand caution in


the etymology of Allah,

I, 1)1 but

using

alilat for

even if they are not accepted 9 ).

is generally accepted that there


lD Herodotus

lS

lS

another reference to Allfit

the reading alilat here

II correct ionll of the alitta of the

It

18

transmitted text to bring

this instance in agreement with Herodotus III, 8.

The reading

a litta is then regarded-as a corruption of alilat under the


influenc e of the
Hilarion,
at Elusa.

~receding

Mylitta.

In his Life of St.

chapter 25,

Jerome refers to a temple of Venus


10)
- - 11)
F.V. Winnett
reasoned that Elusa
seems to be

a transcription of the Arabic al-cUzza,

in this case a

shortened form of something like Bait al-cUzza.

He then

arrives at the conclusion that al-cUzza must be identified


with Venus in her morningstar aspect,
with a statement of Theodolus,

the

~on

which is In accordance
of Nilus,

Arabs of Sinai worshipped the morning star.

that the

Herodotus I, 105

attested the antiquity of the worship of Venus saying that


the templ e of Aphrodite (i.e.

Venus-Astarte) at Askelon was

the oldest temple of this goddess .


the alilat of Herodotus III, 8
al-cUzza than Allat.

Winnett concludes that

is more likely lithe goddess"

The reading alitta in Herodotus I, 131

seems to support this interpretation for it "has a suspicious


resemblance to the sound of al-cUzza".

Thus the evidence

from Herodotus is not reliable enough -to settle the etymoloy

36.

of Allah.

Short inscriptions of the fifth century

found in a Nor'ch-Arab shrine in Egypt,


for deriving All&t from al-il&t.

B.C.

may provide evidence

In these inscriptions~

which were engraved on silver vessels,

hn'lt (han-'il~t)

was used to indicate the d~ity to which the votive offerings


Of the three inscriptions published by I . .

were directed.

R~binovJitz12) in ~9Sb
'ilgt.

the first contains only the word han

From their names in the remaining two inscriptions it

is clear that the donors were of Arab stock and probably have
. .
13)
been settled in the vicinity of the Tell el-Maskhuta
shrine
for at least a genera tion. Now han- is a dialectical form of
14
the definite article ) notably of the North~Arabian dialect
Lihygnite 15 ).

The word han-'ilgt can thereforB be translated

as "the goddess".

The language of these inscriptions however,

is Aramaic as can be deduced from the relative pronoun zi Y


a nd the word bar.
were intended,
'lht',

Rabinowitz argued that if an appellative

it would certainly be expressed by the Aramaic

not by the Arabic,

and therefore han-'ilgt must be

taken as a proper noun in these inscriptions,

referring to

the goddess worshipped in all parts of the pre-Islamic NorthArab world,

V1Z.

A1I~t.

Against his assumption it may be

said that anonymous names always refer to a specific god .


Therefore this Arab tribe would be reluctant to change han
'ilat to Aramaic 'lht',
referring to a deity;

especially in formulaic inscriptions


even though they may have been fully

aware that it was not the proper name of the goddess ,


merely an appellation.

but

To change the name from han-ilgt to

37 .

.:J:ht' could imply that a different deity was invoked even


if both words were known to be merely different dialectical
forms of the same anonymous appellation meaning lithe goddess ll

Besides it is known that Arabs using Aramaic in writing


inscriptions were inclined to commit Arabisms.

It is there

fore not necessary to regard han-ilat as a proper name and


a dialectical variant of Allgtin these instances

16 ).

If

ever a tribe had good re ason to spell the name of the goddess
as han-Il~t,

it was the Lihydnites.

In abo~t 400 inscriptions

the majority of which contain almost exclus ively names,


including a few votive inscription s ,
absent,

though han-cUzza is found 17 ).

the word han-ilat is


When the name of

Allat does appear in Lihyanite it is already a proper name,


spelt defectively Lt 18 ). To equate han-'ilat in these
in sc riptions with Allat is in view of the above not to be
regarded as self-evident. Any other goddess may have been
. invoked as lithe goddess Il19 ).
D.B. Macdonald remarked that ~i-il~hu is not
used in the Koran 20 ). He maintained that Allah is used in
the sense of lithe god ll i.e. as a determjneo common noun
instead,

e.g. in VI, 3 and XXVIII, 70.

But Allah as a

proper name fits both instances well and the translation lithe
god II is not in demand21 ) .

On the contrary it seems that the

occasion to use al-ilah simply did not present itself in the


Koran because it is used in poetry of roughly the same
period 22 ). Although Mohammed himself used only the name
Allah,

it is interesting that he did not take offence when


a poet used al-ilah in the sense of Allah 23 ).

38.
In later Islam,

as well as among modern'

scholars it is generally accepted that All.h was derived


from al-il&h.

Wellhausen s aw in the etymological developm ent

of a l - il&h into All &hu not only the creation of a new word,
'but also of a new god.
god as

II

the god II

Every tribe

II aIle sagten sie Allah und j eder

Allahu ,

verstand seinen Gott"

24

).

referred to his part icular

Thu s the anonymous appellative

AIl&h at first referred to a number of different tribal gods.

~ut in intertribal relations

the local ties faded until

the word Allah ultimately became the proper


god worshipped by all the Arabs.

name of a new

The new god s uperseded th e

old tribal deities rna being SUl generis.

This in addition

to the remarkable absence in the Arabic tongue of a plural


IIthe-gods ll in the sense of the Greek hoi theoi or the Latin
dii made Wellhausen refer,

though cautiously, to the so


called monotheistic instinct of the Semites 25 ). The expo
sition of Wellhausen is not exactly in agreement with the

' evidence of the Koran where it is frequently stated that


All~h is the head of the panth~on of the heathen 26 ).

In spite of our critical approach in the


preceding pages there is in our opinion only one serlOUS
obstacle for this derivation of the name

All~h,

namely

the elision of the first consonant of ila.h, which is alif


al-qat c . In Classical Arabic hamzat al-qat C cannot be

----~.-

elided 27 ).

Nevertheless there are exa mples of its elision

in the Koran as well as in

Arabic poetry. From the root


l'k we have the noun mal'ak 28 ), 'messen ger, angel', also

known from Hebrew,

Ugaritic, Aramaic,

Ethiopic.

But in t he

39.

Koran the ham za was suppressed and it ,s vowel transferred to


~~lak

the prec eding lam so that

r emained.

This furnishes a

para lle l to the elision of hamza aft er l am with


One more example

Allah.

suk~~g

In modern

will suffice:

in

(Palestinian)

" t
" th e f orm mar ,tun"d
" tl1e same wordeX1S-S
Ara b lC
ln
a
31 e by ' 31"de

with mara t ~n ,

ldi th a small difference in meaning:

The form er

means IIwoman" and the latter II wife Il 29 ) .

In North

A~~bi~n proper names 30 ) ong finy ~lso


~~

vyidenoe of forms with

iiuQ.

02risting side by side with

Thus we encounter ~s'! (Lihya n)

forms where it was elided .

next , to y'wsl (Thamud) or Cyd~~ (Lihyan).

Waha_ba~lal].

whblh for

Similarly we fin d

as is evident from the Greek equivalent

Ouaballas.

These consideration s make it possible to


accept,

be it with caution,

as the etymology of Allah.

a contraction of al and ilah


A confirmation of this etymology

can be found in the predilection 31 ) of the poets to use al


ilah for Allah.

If it is correct to find the article al in


the word Allah,
a~

of

plus lah.

it can alternatively be explained to con s ist


Traces of a form lah may still be found 1n

Arabic 32 ). There 1S a very old Semitic word in Hebrew


,
e
"man II ,
nosn,
with Arabic equivalents unas
A

Here we have a case where


retained

1n

the

one

alif

as

instance and

a rootletter
dropped

in

was

40.

the other,

both forms existing in Classical Arabic.

the latter form,

the equiva lent of

same vowels as the word for ll god ll


definite article,
with

AII~h.

If

a Hebrew word with the


is prefixed with the

the resulting form ann~s agree precisely

This glves a perfect parallel of the existence

of a form ilah as well as the word Allah resulting from al

plus lah 34 ).

In fact the

school of BaBra held that

All~h

wag

from al~lah but they erroneously regarded l ah as infinitive


of the verb lyh 35 ).

An etymology al+ilah , or al+ l ah would mean


that the god Allah originated amongst the Arabs themselves.
It would also mean that the original or primitive understanding
of Allah can otily be found in pre-Islamic Arab religion
provided that it is taken into account that '1 (or 'lh)

lS

god common to all the Semites.

4.

Time and place of origin of the name:

According to the theory that the word Allah


is a contraction of al-ilah this deity,
goddess Allat,

as well as the

must have received their proper names among

a group of Arabs who spoke a dialect employing the article


then must have taken place well before the time
of the Nabataeans 36 ) because the theoforic element in

ale

Thi s

Nabataean names like whb'lh is undoubtedly Allah as is


proved by Greek transliterations 37 ).

In addition the

appellative force or original meaning of All&t then seems to


have been forgotten among the Nabataeans as can be seen fro m

'+1 .
com '0'l _n aJ.'
Glans Jl-k'"
_. v

_~l-t._
'J.h~
_ t~_

7,8)
"Allat tll.e goddess"'/
and

'lt 'lhthm "Allat their goddess,,39) in Nabataean inscriptj.ons,


though they could still understand Arabic well if they did
not indeed speak Arabic.'

G. Ryckmans and D. Nielsen regarded the words


'lh,

'It or lh,

It in Lihyanic etc .

nouns without the article,

raised to the dignity of proper

names and vocalised accordingly Ilah,


If this is true,

as Arabic common

Ilat ,

J
or Lah and Lat +O).

it seems c lear that the contraction of a l+

ilah had not yet taken place in Lihyan i te and Thamudic and
also not yet,

if the reading alilat be accepted,

time of Herodotus (died circa 430 B.C.).

at the

These data then

would all point to a date between the Lihyanites and the


Nabataeans i.e.

between the fifth and (at the latest) the

third century B.C. for the fixation of the name Allah.

Looking for a dia.lect employing aI,


word Allah could have originated,

-vI/here the

we find that Nabataean

inscriptions from Si'nai sho\lJ a remarkable . number of propoT


names beginning with the article al whLLe,
Winnett,

ac.cording to
it is seldomly met with outside Sinai 41 ). This

could be taken as evidence that the names Allah and Allat


originated among the Arabs of Sinai and the evidence from
Herodotus III, 8 would point to the same r egion for an
artic le ale

AccC?l'ding to F. V. \.tJinnett it is entirely at


variance with the geographical distribution o! the insc riptions

42.

to look for the orlg1n of the names

.42)

S lYBl
AII~h

All~h

and

Although numerous Nabataeans bear

All~t

in

All~h-nnmes,

is not invoked in any Nabataean inscription.

The

majority of the ref e renc e s to Allat are to be found ln the


Safaitic ins criptions from Syria while the majority of
names occur further north in Palmyrene.
All~h

(with doubled -1) also in

hav e 'lh and not the shorter

Lihy~nic

~)

and in

AII~t

To find the name

(at least

where we

~am-Q.dicl-l-3) Seem5

justified44 ) by the fact that the element 'lh of Arabic names


.

4h)

1S r epresen t ed by alIas in Greek (e.ge Abdallas / ,


if

t~e

even

Gre ek transcriptions of these names may be of a

somewhat later period.

Religion influ ences name giving in that un


acceptable names are brought in line with the" ruling fa i th.
From his examination of the pre-Islamic inscriptions Winnett
concluded that the occurrence of Allah-names suggests that
Li~yan (modern al-cUla) was the first centre of Allah worship

Invocations ~o Allah occur in Lihyanite from


the fifth century B.C. 47 ) onwards and in Thamudic from a

in Arabia 46 ).

somewhat later dat e onwards.

Thus both the Allah-names and

invo cat ions of Allah converge to suggest that it was the


Lihyan ites who introduced the worship of Allah into Arabia 48 ).

The prosperity of the


ded on widespread trading r e lations,

Li~yanites

must have

and these would

bly have subjected them to foreign influences 49 ).

dep e ~

inevi t ~

Winnett

suggested that the real home of Allah a nd Allat was in

Sy ri~;.

43.

IlFrom Syria the cults of these two divinities spread dovm


through the Hauran into Nabataea,

Sinai and

Lihy ~n,

where

the Southern Arabs made their acqu.aintance and carried Allat

home to the Ye men!l50) These data would then turn our search for
the origin of the word Allah away from the Sinai region,
(where al-:. was used

as

definite article) to investigate

Syria as country of orlgln .

Winnett in agreement with other scholars S1 )


pointed out that the Syriac word for "God" is
resembling

All~h

closely in spelling .

larity demands further investigation.

a~!~h:.,

This striking simi


-~

The final

of the

Syriac word is the common Aramaic article of determination


for which the Arabic caso-ending would be substituted when
the . word is taken over into Arabic.

Syriac writing does

not indicate gemination though gemination can be inferred


from the fact that Qushshaya is indicated with the b~&adkef~tletters.

Nevertheless the second consonant,

1,

must be

read as a geminated consonant in agreement with the common


Aramaic rule that a short vowel,
syllable ,

1S

in an unstressed open

reduced to shewa g~iescens (~he Arabic sUkfin)

or to a shewa mobile.

The preservation of the short vowel

indicates that it is a closed syllable (it does not have


the stress) which means that the 1 is doubled.

Thus the

Syriac word is the exact equivalent of the Arabic

All~h

in the consonants and in the vowelso

There is,

however,

one difference:

In

Syriac the alif has full consonantal value whereas it is

both

only alii _Q.9;ljunc_tiolli.

Arabico

1 ~ :3 .

with

al-was l,

ha::rt~~ 3.t

_0'_..____"_____,
" ,_

In

The deterioration of the consonant can be ascribed

to careless pronunciation of this word,

due especially to

its frequent use in the language 52 ).

It even became (in

connectio-:l with the vocative particle

l~)

y'~~:.ah

(the ,Q with

sukD.n) in the phrase yalah a.oE:fir Ii "0 God

forg:Lve me" , but

this is disapproved of by Arab purists 53 ).

This process of

weakening the ali must then have been fac i litated by the
outward similarity between the first syllable of
definite article al- which has

~~Jf co~~nc tionis 54 ).

traces of an original alif al-qat

Some

can be found jn the well-

attested vocative y~ all~hu where the hamza in All~h


hamzat al -qa!,

and the

All~h

1S

as well as in the elliptical phrase a -9.

al~hi_la-t~fCalanna meaning IIThen,


do (such a thing)?1I55).
can become hamzat aI-qat

by God, 'wilt thou ind e ed

Since even the

ha~~~

of the article

c under particular circumstances,

this point should however not be stressed 56 ) .

Etymologically and geographically nothing can


be said against the equat:i0n of the Arabic Allah with the Syriac
allah~.

There

be satisfied :

1S

however,

a third requirement which must

It must be historically possible.

We

found

beyond doubt that the name Allah was already well established
amongst the Nabataeans in the third century B.C. and
even earlier .
in

Li~yanic

p~rhaps

If it is accepted that the name Allah occurs

and iJ'hamlldic,

the use of that nam e is carried

back to a date beyond the 5th century

B.C~,

which is the

date given to the oldest inscriptions from I,ihyan (accordin g

4-5.

to Albright 57 )

and ThamQd.

We have references in Syriac literature


taking us back to the beginning of the second century B.C.,

but the olde st preserved Syriac


the

year

73 A.D.

It

inscription dates back to

is to be found on the grave of a

descendant of the Arabic dynasty who ruled in Edessa

since about 125

late to

B.e. 58 ).

8yriac arrived on the scene too

be the source of th~ Arabic word Allgh.

applies to Mandaic,

II

god ll

Winnett also referred to Nabataean

and Palmyrene as Aramaic dialects with probably


But it should be

Nabataeans were Arabs,


writing purposes,

The same

another Aramaic dialect with the same

spelling for the word

spelling 59 ).

(Urhai)

kep~

~n id~ntical

in mind that the

thou gh they used Aramaic for

and their writing r e flects - Arabisrns 60 ).

It is also not clear how the word under discussion was


pronounced in Palmyra.

What is lacking is

~rrefutable

evidence of a pronunciation allaht! from Aramaic of. the fifth


century B.C.,

or old e r.

The common Aramaic spelling of the


'\

word for IIGod" must have been ,e lah :,


Aramaic

61 )

In the present state of

be concluded that those


similar to Allh,

Aram~ic

as it
aflai~s

lS

in Biblical

it can as well

dialects which have a sp e lling

possibly borrowed it from the Arabic 62 ).

Our investigation led neither to an indisput a ble


solution of the etymology of the \fJord Allah,
exact sphe re and place where it ori gin a ted.
believer will not share our embarras s me nt.

nor to the
Th e Moslem
To him it will

be indicative of the fact that man cannot grasp God with hi.

46.

mind.

In fact most of the

fo~mulators 6f the Mos l em

fundamentals (al-usfiliyfin) held that the proper nama All~h

---, ._----_..- .,

had no derivation 63 ).

In view of the evidence at our

disposal we can only say that it can at best be derived from


al plus i lcl~ (or Hih) and t ha t it was already a proper name
ln the fifth century B.C.,
for the

Lihy~nites

used it

as such,

among northern dialectical groups,

and the people of Thamfid in all probability

and certainly the Nabataeans in the third

century B.C.

Every worthy theory on the origin of the name


Allah brings it into relation with the root

~lh,

which

"

64)

also found in the Arabic word for "god" namely ilah

lS

In

current Arabic versions of the Bible the word "God" ('1


-'
65
'lw h and ~~hYm) is uniformly translated by Allah ) and
according to Fakhr al-Dinal-Razi some Moslems held that the
word Allah was of Syriac or Hebrew origin66 ).

The translation

of the Bible versions and the last mentioned theory are


legitimate in as far as they are pointing to the fact that
the name Allah is an Arabic form of the common Semitic
noun -'-1.1h).

The erudition of many great scholars was


applied in search of the original

me~ning

of the common

Semitic 'd ord for "God II and to arrive at the; ba sic concept
of the root,

but no one succeeded to formulate an etymolo gy


that attained the merit of general acceptance 67 ). We pre en~

Wl.

here what to us seems t o be a sound approach to the whole


problem ..

1.

The relationship 1.1 : ilah:

A. Fischer saw in ilah the original Semitic


word for Godo

II is an abbreviation of this word which

figured in this short form in theoforic proper names already

in

Pro~o-gemi~ic times.

Later the shortened form gained

independent existence and 8ven largely replaced the original

il~h68).

Murtonen objected that the Accadians did not know

the longer form and that it also played an insignificant


role amongst the Canaanites 69 ).

We believe that the opposite development


took place.

N~

Rhodokanakis drew attention to a phenomenon

in the South Arabian inscriptions he called the IIzweigipflige


Akzent Il70 ). In the South Arabian inscriptionsonly consona nts
were expressed,

but it cati be taken for granted that the

feminine plural ending was

-~t.

In a good number of cases

this was expres,sed by -ht which means that the long vQl..vel
was often pronounc ed

a-a

to result in a form aha t .

~'hus

long vowel may be dissolved into two homogeneous vowels


separated by Q.

To this phenomenon may be

co~pared:

The

Dutch and Afrikaans word:

dag (literally II day II but generally

used as a greeting like:

IIGood day!") which sounds like dah ag

when it is called out;

Hebrew ar~s6t and Mandaic arqa hata;


im m6t

and LJgaritic umht;

the North-Isra e litic form of the int e r

48"
'\

rogative particle

~=hi~ In

HOSe

Hebrew interrogative particle

13 :10, 1'i and the

'eY ;

Ugaritic plural ~lm

and the more occasio:lal form jPlm ;


both m~aning

II

familil

and Arsbic al and ahl

In an inscription from Sala we find the

proper name bsh and from

usual

two other inscriptions containing the S9.Ine

genealogy it is clear that the name of the same person was


also

written bhsh72 ).

development

.il~

>-

may perhaps compare

In

ilahU
aba

the same way we can concelve a


For the int e rm ediate f orm ila one

f~rm of ab used by some Arabs in

a ll three cases 73 ).

The present writer is convinced that scholars


who saw in ilah a vocative form of il were on the right
track 74 ).

In view of the above their theory must be sli ght ly

modified:

It is true that the h can best be understood as

resulting from the long vowel

when a word is called out,

but it seems to be a widespread phenomenon that the originally


long vowel 75 ) showed a tendency to be pronoun ced "zweigipflig 11
a nd as such to be representBd by two vowels,
of the same length,

separated

by~.

not necessarily

This phenomenon must

also be as old as the language it se lf and Dight well have


been representativ e in some cases of regional

2.

pronunciation76~

The etymolo gy bf il:

If il.h is an extens ion of


to investigate the etymo lo gy of _
i1 77,
)

i~,

we will have

thou~h
this word is
t..:>

not used in Arabic except as a theoforic element in proper


names 78 ).

Frank Zimmerman produced evidence that il i s

derived from the Arabic ill un 79).

This word is used in the

particular sense of a) relaLionship (cf. the Ko ran IX, 8),


b) a covenant between two parties by which either is bound
to protect the other,
from the roo1;:;

c)

lordship80).

which has the meaning II goal ) direction

(compare the Hebrew prepositiOD


m~aning

Others derived it

'to be strong"

81 )

ll

e!, Arabic ila7), or the

Jean Starcky followed

N~ ldek e

who

. explained the word from the root 'wI "to be in front, first"82~

As Murtonen already pointed out,

ill the

suggested etymologies havebhe common weakness that they


can explain only part of the essential meaning of the word
i1 83 ). Ugaritic words like E-"voice" ands!-"hand ll (only in
combinations) confirmed the theory that many, if not all,
Semitic words can be traced back to originally biconsonantal
or even monoconsonantal roots,and these words prove that
the hypothesis is not relating to a prehistoric period but
constitutes a historical reality8L+).

Therefore all th ese

theories that endeavoured to explain the etymology of il


were based on the wrong presumption that it had to be
derived from a tricon sonantal root.

All these roots have

on the contrary been derived from the word il and consequently


reflect different shades of the meaning of this word 85 ). Their
existence must be seen as an attempt to adapt the. biconson,:U1t-al
word to the normalized triconsonantal system which became
characteristic of the Semitic languages.
very old word;

II is in fact a

the oldest Semitic word for

II

god"

In South Arabia the deity was often brought

50~

into family or tribal r elationshi p with his worshippers.


He is father,

brother,

etc. 86) ,

uncle,

of the tribe who are his offspring,


companions,

his servants,

etc.

of the members

his priests,

his

These ide as were not

altogether foreign to the North-Western Semites either87 ).


In certain Biblical passages like Ex. 15:15 and Ezek. 17:13;
31:11, . the word 81im signifies the tribal leaders 88 ).
Furthermore the Arabic word al is exclusively used for an

illustrious clan

in contrast' with the word ahl.

These facts

inter alia and the meaning of the (in our opinion derived)
root

~ql

meaning lito be in frontll led J. Starcky89) to the

following conclusion:
d e s nomades,

ilLes premiers Semites,

ont certainement

con~u

qui etaient

la divinite comme une

puissance tutelaire qui les entouTqit de sa

l'instar du groupe ethnique dont ils etaient me mbres,


'cheikh' qui les dirigeait.
ha- 'e ~ ou ilum,

sollici tude,

et d u

lIs l'ont donc designee par

et ce mot pri t bient6t Ie sens de

dieu I

ce qui suppose que la diviniie ainsi nomm6e etait la seule


veneree dans Ie groupe ethnique Il90 ).

If this hypothesis is

correct we are here supplied with the origin of the concept


il.

This view is confirmed by the South

A~abian

inscriptions

where theoforic names imply that 11 belonged to the clan as


the head of it and where his function was that of a guardian
defending the rights of the members of the clan 91 ).

On the other hand the word 11

m~y

be analysed

still further and trac ed back to the Proto-Semitic monoconsonanta l root

1,

for ali i

lS

commonly used to extend a

root in the formation of nouns 92 ).

The root 1 then had

51.

That which is far awuy ;

the basic meaning of :

thut which

is powerfu1 93 ) --,because it is capable to exercise its


influence over such a distance 94 ).

In th e biblical phrase

yesh-1 e '81 yadi the word e1 means llpmlerl1 according to

---._--'--

w.

Baum3artner95) while

in the

the el ement of distance may be found

used as a deictic element e.g. in the Arabic de

monstrative pr onoun .

The concept of power would be in '

a~reement with the proc1itic emphasizing particle la/IQ

found in Ara bic,

Ugaritic and Hebrew (e.gQ Gen.

30:34). The

idea of distance would be reflected in the Hebrew particle


lu expresslng a wish and the negative a l (Ugari tic,

Hebr ew ),

la (Arabic) - - that which is far away and therefore not


known.

In Ugaritic the negatives al and bl are in fact a lso


used with positive force in the sense of: 11 surely,,9 6 ),
showing that opposite me a nings cou ld be conveyed using the
same word.
(Ugaritic),

Thence also the derived verb l'h (Hebrew),


etc.,

meaning !Ito be weak",

la

can be explained.

The Arabic interrogative particle ha1 97 ) reflects the un


certainty about that which is distant.

In this context it

is int eresting to note that according to some grammarians


hal was originally equivalent in meaning to the particle
qad 98 ).
1110,

Can it be accidental that of the Ugaritic words for

behold" hn is used to indicate what is nearby in text

hn bJ2.Y s12 rhn ,


further off In c nt II: 17

77:45,

may be,
Hebrc 'cr,

Lj6 :

whereas hI indicates what is


whln. c nt. tmf(,2:1'l]2 ?.. However this
~

it lS important to note to the contrary that Uga ritic,


hIm
and Arab i c - means "here ,

hither"

52.

3.

Conclusion:

In conclusion we may
All~h

il ~h

as well as the word

ln the word il.

repeat that the name

have their ultimate origin

The etymology of il in turn is complex.

It is one of the f ew words that belong to the common stock

t an t"lqUlty 100)
of all the Semitic peoples 99 ) and because OIlS
ro

it

IS unlikely that its

beyond all doubt.

etymology will ever be established

We may aocept that primitive Semitic

thought associated the conceptions of distance and especially


of power with the root '1.

Consequently this root was not

only used to indicate the powerful and r espected leader of


the tribe,

but also constituted an appropriate name for

If

God ".

Many scholars are of the opinion that II was

at first the name of a particular god,

the most eminent

representative who gave his name to the whole class of gods


As to the place of origin -of this god 11,

101 )

it has been said

that the evidence points to the Northwest Semitic re gion where


the god :figured prominently in the Ugaritic mythological texts
as we ll as in theoforic names.

In fact Otto Eissfeldt

claimed that "El is the particular contribution of Ca naan to


the 'vJorJ_d" 102).

Th'l S

t a'-emen
l:;
t

fiUS t -

b e approac h e d

. f-h_.

Wl\J

caution for I.J. Gelb concluded from his investigation of

_ A ccadian texts that

I~

'/Jas a most important god amongst the

Mesopotamian Semites of the pre-Sargonic period, i.e. a


thousand years befo r e the Ug8.ritic text s 1 03). The n 8.:ne II
was in addi t ion fO'J. nd in North and Central Arabia - - ex
elusively in theoforic names - - and also in South Arabi eJ ,

53~

where it was mainly us ed in

perso~al

name s

10 /+)

M.

H~fn er

concluded "dass e s sich hier urn eine sehI' urt limliche


G~ttergestalt

handelt;

man

m~ chte

Nomadischen Himmelsgott denken,


verschiedenen

Einzel g~tte rn.

an einen gemeinsemit.

der

sp~ter

Stammesg~ttern

hint e r den

u. dgl.

zuriicktritt" 105 ).

Thus II can be seen as the god who was orl


106
ginally the p~ime divinity of the Semites
). Because II
was the god .J2.:.r excellence and the embodiment of the idea of
the divine,

the word il came to be applied to any god to


indicate him as a god 107 ). When the Semites entered Mesopo
tamia they absorbed the religion they found there,

at th e

cost of their own, with the result that II fell into


oblivion 108 ). If it is correct to find the ultimate origin
of the name Allah In the word il and to find in '1 the
proper name of a god,

the god II also disappeared from the

Arab religion but revivedam6ng the Northern Arabs with a


new name:

Allah.

C HAP T E -R

FO U R

1\

ALLAl-I

BEFORE

THE

ADVEI fr

OF

ISLAM

Our knowledg e of pre-Islamic religion in


Arabia is still very deficient in spite of the pioneer work
of great scholars initiated by Wellhaus en and Nielsen and
In spite of the decipherment of the
which have been collected -

numerous inscriptions

often in peril of life.

Allah

does not figure in Les Reli gio~.._ Arabes Pr&is)amiqu~~

(1951)

of G.

Ryckma~s

lah.

As far as our pres ent subject

and only a few lines are devoted to il/ilah/


1S

concerned

Ren~

Dussaud

had in fact good reason to remark that IInos sources sont


muettes sur le role d'Allah avant Mahomet Il1 ).
the investigator

1S

Consequently

forc ed to resort to the most diverse

sources in order to form some picture of the image and emotions


th e name Allah invoked in th e hearts and minds of the people
of Arabia at a time when the name Mohammed did not yet bear
any exceptional significance.

It is beyond doubt that the word Allah is


philologically related to the god 11 of the Ugaritic texts
and of th e South-Arabian inscriptions.

The roots of a

conception of Allah can therefore in the first place be found


in the Ugaritic materia1 2 ) --- taking the necessary precaut ions
into consideration when a synthesis is made.

A.

11 of Ugarit:

As we have mentioned in our study of the ori gi n


of the word AIIG.h,

the word il originally signifieo_ a dynami c

55.

strength which IS the primitive and fundamental


of the leading God of the Semitic pantheon.

charact~ristic

The Ugaritic

myths revealed that Il was the proper name of the greatest


4)
god of the original Canaanite pantheon?A)
11 is father
buy bnwt 5).

of the gods and creator of the creatures,


IS

also the father of mankind,

earth 7 ).

He

ab adm 6 ) and creator of the

11 is described as kingS) and the express ion,

m1k

ab_~nE!.9),

possibly designates him as "the king, the father


1110)
of the luminaries . Because of his creative powers II is
symbolized with the epithet 1'bull",

thr11),

but the texts

represent him as already senile 12 ) and sexually1 3 ) and


physically14) weakened.

The texts give the impression that

when the bulk of them was

constructed 11 was becoming a


- c

deus otiosu s substituted by other gods notably Ba al, Mot and


Yamm.

Although 11 still has to give his consent in import ant

matters,

e.g. the building of a palace for

not always treated with due respect

16)

B~ca115),

he is

In fact he is rather

humanly pictured as highly emotional with outbursts ranging


from the depths of sorrow to the heights of joy and

Pleasure17~

_ The aged 11 is singled out among theUgaritic gods for the


epithet "(the) wise ll , hkm18 ). He is called "holyll, qds~19),
and"beneficent 11 benignll,

1 1-vpn

1 apl
" . d 20 )

He does not

appear to be a violent god.


Though II once ruled In heaven 21 ) the Ugaritic
myths represent him a s being in the netherworld whither he
o y banl's'ned by Ba c a1 22 ). But even under
ha d b een pr 23uma ~l
these circumstances Il's original position as head of the
pantheon is reflected 23 ): When Bac a l has died the gods in
their crisis automatically resort to II who appoints CA tht r

56.

as successor 2 +)

B.

The evidence from South Arabia:

It has been established beyond any doubt


that the pre-Islamic North Arabian tribes of Lihyan,

Thamud

and Safa,

amongst whom we found the first traces of the name

Allah, had close contacts with

writing of the

Lihy~nic

South Arabia.

In form the

inscriptions closely resemblffithe

South Arabian alphabet 25 ) and the writing used in the

Thamudic and Safaitic inscriptions has likewi se been derived


from the South Arabian

26

).

The South Arabians became famous

as tradesmen of East e rn commodities and more particularly as


incense traders introducing the products 27 ) of India and
South Arabia to the West.
not only travelled widely,

In pursuit of this occupation they


but also established trade

colonies to facilitate their commerce and to look after their


interests.
~idiaz,

In fact modern al~cUla,

situated in the region where most of the

. inscriptions have been found,


De dan,

has been identified

the old IVJinaean trade COIOny29).,

it is interesting to note that Wadd,


LXXI,

an oasis in the northern

23

Li~yanic

28

) with

In this context

mentioned in the Koran

as one of the gods of Noah's contemporaries,

was

worshipped by Lihyan in Dedan where he had a temple 30 ).

Wadd

was the official name of the moongod in Mac in where he was


the national god of the Minaeans 31 ) .

Ren Dussaud even found

justification to refer to the Lihyanites,

TharnQdeans

Safaites a s the South Arabians in Syria 32 ).

and

The proph e t

Mohammed had great respect for South Arabian culture and


tradi tion attributes to him the saying:

II

The faith is of

Yemen, the wisdom is of Yemen and the Islam is of Yemen,,33).

to

It 1S v e ry interesting
or Ih

34 )

find the theoforic element

already at this e arly date,

names like 'lhtb

(Sab a '),

'lh

ln South Ara bia n

sC dlh (S a b a ') and c bd1h (Mina).

11 35 ) is only rarely mentioned in the South


Arabian inscriptions as an individual god and our malD source
of information lS the many South Arabian personal names
c6ntaining 'il as theoforic element 36 ).

As in Ugarit,-

II was originally theprlrne god

in the official religion and as such he wa s c alled


11 the mo s t high 38 ).

~tCly3'7),

The same 11 i s me ant when in a Sa b a e a n

ins c ription the lord of heaven and e a rth is invoke d 39 ).


Qatabanian inscription 11 carries the epithet

fk~r

probably signifies him as the Creator and means

II

In a

which

the potter Il40 ).

An investigation of the S outh Arabian personal names reveals


that '1 was the only theophoric element used in the oldest
time 41 ) and that these names belong mainly to the Mina e an and
C'<
. ,
t'lons. 42) .
Th ese names . d escrl. b e 11 as
oldes-t oabaean
lnscrlp
. the first 43 ), and the exalted 44 ). He is the knowing 45 )

king 46 ) and righteous 47 ) judge 48 ) who


iniquity.

s~~erely

punishes 49 )

He was also known for his great love 50 ).

addressed as father 51 ).

Children 52 ),

11 is

agricultural fertility53)

and prosperi t y54) come from him who is alw a ys prepared to


listen 55 ) to the needs of hi s creatures when they call upon
his name 56 ).

They find him willing to pardon their sin 57 )

and to bless them with health and a long life 58 ).


them like s he e p59).

11 is the trustw o rthy50) guard. of h i s

p e ople who has the strength


as their saviour63 ).

He pastures

61

) toprotect 62 ) them and act

11 leads his p e ople in war and g i v e s

58e

. t

them VIC ory

64)

over

'h . . .. . . .

elr enemIes

65)

These names by

which II is variously known, reveal a very high and Doble


concept of his person,

uniting simple trust with reverence


for his holiness and righteousness 66 ).

Minaean inscriptions from CIrca 450 B.C.


prove that II was still the most important god in South
Arabian religion. in this period 67 ).
Qatabanian inscription,
mentioned,

But according to a

where he is listed last of the gods

II lost all real significance towards the end of

the second century B.C.

68) . 'He is rarely mentioned in later

inscriptions although the oldest proper names reveal e d a


stage , where II was the prime god,
was founded 69 ).

II was replaced by CAthtar,

a war and fertility god 70 ).


was,

probably wh en the dynasty

is difficult to say.

the Morningstar,

How complet e ly this replace me nt


II is still mentioned and we may

believe that in difficult times people would still take their


refug e in him.

Sinc e Ditlef

N~elsen71)

id e ritified II in

South Arabian religion with the moongod and r educ e d the gods
of the South Arabian pantheon to an exclusive triad consisting
of the moongod,

the sungoddess and th e i~ child Venus,

. . 72)
- eory me t W1 th severe cr1. t 1C1sm
th

this

Teh '1mport
tl
anpace

0f

the mentioned triad of gods in South Arabian religion can


not be disputed 73 ).

To state that all the names of gods 1n

that panthe on represe nt these three gods under different names


1S,

how ever,

not proved by the t ex ts 74 ) and s eems to be an

ove rsimplific a tion.

The identity of II with th e moongod

r e mains a widely reject ed theory.

Nevertheless it is

59.

interesting that at the end of official inscriptions

th~

gods are mentioned in the sequence CAthtar (Venus),

Moon,

Sun 75 ).

This sequence 1S remarkable since one would expect

the national god , the moon,

to occupy the first position.

It is the more remarkable because it implies that the moongod

had been surpassed by CAthtar76) ,

reminding us of our

prev10us conclusion that it was II who was replaced by CAthtar.

Furthermore the moon shares with II a number of epithets ,

ab 78 ) , Saml"'c 79)

officigl ngmQ

~f th~ moongod ~n Qaba~

by Jamme "11 is mighty !!


vocalize this word,
11 81 ).

In Qddi.tion the
was ~lmgh,

(IIU~9Uhu)80).

translated

However we may

it is clear that it contains the name

It has been suggested that the moongod took over some

of the qualities of 11 when CAthtar overcame him

82

).

But

the points to which we have just referred as well as the


traces of a moon centred cult found in the Israelitic and
Islamic religions 83 ) seem to point to some connection of the
Il-cult with the moon.

Possibly there was a stage when 11

was worshipped in Arabia in the image of the rnoon

84

).

The

views of Nielsen were exaggerated but his overstatements


should not prejudice what is sound in them.

C.

The evidence from North Arabia:

It is among the Northern dialectical groups


that the name Allgh was already current in the fifth century

B.C.

In Lihyanic,

Thamudic and Safaitic theoforic n a mes

the element i1 85 ) is used predominantly.

The e1 2ment

~lh,

Ih representing the name Allah is also met with 86 ), markedly

50.
ln alternation with i1

87 ).

This confirms our conclusion

ln the previous' chapter that II and Allah are identical.

The theoforic proper names of the Northern


Arabs of the pre-Islamic era reveal that II was the most
important god in their pantheon.
as the most High
creator

91 \

).

88 ).

93 ).

He is the living one 89 ),

the manifest 90 )

Many epitheta put II in a tribal relationship


He is father 92 ) and the people are his

with his people:


children

Accord i ngly he was known

He is father-in-law

Qh) ,

uncle0

S),

he is the

leader of the tribe 96 ) and its members are his partisans97),


he is their friend 98 ).
them by tangible laws

100

11 is
).

near9~)

11 is jealOus

who are the objects of his 10ve


a

lion10L~).

102

).

101

11 is as strong103 ) as

He humbles 108 ) the enemy,

lays waste110) his land,

guiding

) of his people

He protects 105 ) his clients 106 ).

glves victory107).
him,

to his people,

In wartime 11
he crushes 109 )

and reduces him to slavery1/11).

He rejoices at the defeat of the enemy112). 11 is brave 113 )


11 Lj_ ) .
11 5 )
and makes brave
those who seek refuge with him
He

saves 116 )
his people from their distress and gives them
. ass1stance
.
117)

I n d1V1d uals are c h osen as h"1S f avour1t es 118)

and some are consecrated119 ) to him by special vows .

The tender care of 11 for his people is

expressed by the metaphor of the shepherd

120

).

When they

" h"J.S name 122) h e 11S -'cens 123) 11"1S a 1


so

cry ou t 121) 1n
124
likened to a king
) . He is 10rd 125 ) and the people are

his servants 126)

In fact their position is that of slaves

towards their master12'7)

-
{::,h
All ct

128 ).

They are dependant on the wish of

"1
29)
But he 1S
good

"

He knows 130) them and t h e1r

61e

fears and he causes them to smile

1 A1)
~

He rewards their

good deeds 132 ).

He is benevolent giving grace133 ) and he


is willing to pardon134 ) their sins. He cures 135 ) their

illnesses .

The gifts of children and wealth are from 11136 ),

provided by his creative word 137 ).

11 gives abundantly1 38).

he is the one who deserves praise 140 ).


He disposes over life to lengthen it 141 ), and when the mother

Indeed,

11 is great 139 ) ,

dies at childbirth it is 11 who takes her away142) .


pure and guiltless 143 ).

11 IS

11

is

cal~144) and contented145 ) of

nature.

Other theoforic names, imply that 11 was


.
146)
becoming a deus ot1oSUS
.

It was felt that 11

He became slow149),

distant11+7) and even hostile148).


repenting150 ) and emotiona1 151 ).

became

He is no

longer described

in terms of his former dignity152).

Some theoforic names identify 11 with the


moon --- that is to say if they are taken at face value.
Names of particular importartce in this context are such as
bdrl (Safa),

dhrh'l (Lihyan) and crb'l (Safa).

--

..

The root

bdr153 ) is the word in Classical Arabic to signify the moon


when it has become full and round.

The word dhrh describes

..
1

1 54) an d1n thO


.
um1nary
e 1 d T estamen t 1. t 1S
I 1 as a s h 1n1ng
used to describe the rising sun155 ).

The name crb'l pictures

the setting of 11 in the West for c rb is likewise used of the


sun in the South Arabian inscriptions 156 ).

Alternatively

one could take the element il inthese and other names like
C '1
_m_,
sn'l
---,

shhr'l

as an appellative and

translate accordingly "Nahar is god,Sin is god ll

etc.

The latter solution is however not as s e lfevident as one


tends to believe.

This is demonstrated by a name like

cmhrdw where the element ~m is clearly not the official name

of the

national moongod in Qatab~n,

for" (paternal) uncl e ,,157).

but simply the word

~1oreover

a name like IIcAmm is

godn158 ) could only be sensible in the context of a polemical


exclusivism,
time

159 ).

gOd Il160 ),

unknown in the politheistic setting of the

Unless the name

Amm,

5enBeof

IIcArnm

is my

expressing the relation of the worshipper to a

particular god.
c

conveys the

etc.,

On the other hand it is clear that Nahar,

were used as proper nam e s of gods in theoforic

names like n~rwhb (Safa) and cmT~ (Lihyan)161).

In the inscriptions of the Northern Arabs and,

as far as the people of Safa is concerned more particularly

the chief ~afaitic deity, Allat was represent ed

162)
This leads to the conclusion that her
as the sungoddess.
in drawings,

male counterpart Allah,


. inscriptions,

rarely mentioned ln Safaitic

was associated with the moon.

More often than

of Allah the Safaitic inscriptions make mention of Ruda


written rdw and rdy.

This deity was identified with Venus

both in the planet's appearance as a morning


evening star.

and as an

Probably rdw represents his appearance as god

while 'rdy refers to the femal e appearance as the evening star163) ,

Also in Thamfidic inscriptions Ruda is one of the gods invoked

most frequently.

Though under a different name,

Venus

overshadowed II/Allah amongst the Northern Arab tribes as weJl.

According to the inscriptions it is Allfih


who grants his servant a long life and good luc k .
.

them and gives them peace and prosperlty

He guides

16L~ )
0

One word used in a number of Thamudic


inscriptions deserves special attention in our quest for
the pre -I slamic concept of

We give an example of

All~h.

such an inscription using the word ' btr


"

It reads:

h'lh

' btr bk hsrr165) E.. Littmann translated 110 Gatt 1dv.rch


dich ist die Freude verheissen ll

Because of the posttion

of the word'btr in this inscription Littmann thinks it


should be a verb of the root btr lito cut" rather , than an
In Classical Arabic the verb batara me ans

epithet of Allah.

"to cut off the tail of an animal!l.,

The word abtar


-. is
applied to a person having no offspring or progeny166)
the Koran CVIII ,

Mohammed's enemies.

In

abtar is used as a threat against


It is said that Mohammed himself had

been mocked because he had no surviving sons,


occasion to this verse of the Koran.
"0 Allah who has no progeny,

giving

Thus we could translate

happiness originates with you!! .

If this is correct the word abtar contains a confession of


monotheism which would later become characteristic of Islam,
and .represents an early example of the convictions of the
Hanifs.
however,

The interpretation of the word 'btr remains,


a matter of uncertainty167).

The name Allah occurs quite frequently in


pre-Islamic poetry.

Ta k e n at face value this poetry could

64.
present the

most reliable and informative data on

concept of All~h before the era of Mohammed

168)
0

the
This

poetry remained the object for a study of pure Arabic for


the grammarians of Kfifa and Basra.

It was generally

conside red to be the startjng point of linguistic work and


the

model o.f a perfect

usage

of

the

language.

In fact the

poetry had its influence on the orthography of the Koran for


its dialect was adapted to the "high Arabic 11 of the P08tsc
Unfortunately the

pa 6an

poetrJ

of

NQrthern Arabia hardly

contains any religious sentiment. Alarge number of the


references to Aligh are oath formu lae and the ove rall
. r e1 19lOUS
..
l
impression 1S that the pagan poetry 1S
y '1nd'1f'f eren t 169).

It is also beyond any doubt that many of the instances where


the name AIIgh 1S used,

are not authentic.

The Arabs were

masters of the art of poe try and it is known that a Ravliya


could imitate the style of his master so well that nobody
could discern his own

improvisatio~s

fro~

the work of his

mast er - - in spite of the strict schematism and the


complicated construction of Arabic poetry170).

We have

evidence that off ensive words were replaced in Islamic times


by others of th e same metrical value 171 ). The names of
pagan godS were often replac ed in Islamic times by the name
of Allah to wipe out the traces of paganism of a relation
or a heroic poet 172)
in the same way as the theoforic
element in proper names was changed to Allah 173 ). Arabian
po e try vms written down only L1. the Islamic era when the
well-mo"fm collections were compiled.

Naturally many

(probably most) instances of the use of the name Allah in


pagan

po

'~

are authentic.

But apart from the question of

authenti ' vy th e possibility and often probability of Jewish

or Christian influence casts a shadow of doubt over th~


legitimate use of

pas~n

poetry as a portrayal of the Allgh

of pre-Islamic Arab religion.

These considerations clearly

indicate that poems of pagan origin

present no secure basis

to build up the Arab concept of Allah.

Subject to thi s

res erva tion we now proceed to pre sent information on the


A

us e of Allah by pagan poets

174)

The name Allah is frequently invoked in


oaths 175 ) with the implication that he a cts as witness to

the truth of the statement.


of Allah for he alone .

lS

Oaths are taken by the life

not subjected to death 176 ).

determines the destiny of man 177 ).


the bad 178 ).

thing;

He decrees the good a nd

Allah punishes the thief when night covers him

with darkness 179 ).


deeds 180 ).

Allah

He requites every person according to his

His decree is fulfilled

he knows what is hidden

called upon as

Wl. t

182

181

);

).

Allah knows every

therefore he can

be

Id

ness .M"
an lS _lS
servan t 183 )]\n
.lan s h ou

fear Allah for to do so is greater than to have booty


. treasures or earthly friendships184).

He can trust Allhto

defend him 185 ) for Allah is faithfu1 186 ).


has no recourse 187 ).

or

Beyond Allah man

Allah creates him in the womb of his

mother 188 ) and everybody is on his way to meet Allah in

deat~8~.

.
190)
Ne ve rtheless Allah does not desire the death of man

The

mercy of Allah191 )

lS

a source of comfort for his people.

Allah is the patron of guests 192 ).

Allah does not allow his

people to be disloyal to friends 193 ; to be treacherous194~ or

1 0 1:-" )
to do evi l 77 .
I t is Allah who provid e s the r a in,
the

heavy downpours as well as the continuous drizzle 196 ). Prai se

Qais ibn al-Khatim 198 )

Medinan poet,
of the building

referred to All~h as the creator and as lord

I.e.

of the Kacba in Mecca.

Allah will only what he will (11,

8).

He states that

Interesting is

verse of the pagan poet Aus ibn Ha9jar al-Taffilffif:

II

By Allat

and al-CUzzg and their worshippers,

and by Allgh,

and

he

is certainly g reater than they are,,199).

The pagan poetry picture s All~h a long the

same lines as the other sources discussed above. It is


interesting that a poet of the beginning of the Islamic era
warns his people not to consider Allah ignorant and forgetfu1

2OO
).

Th e necessity of such a" remark shows that Allah faded into


the background of religious concern but that he was making
a com e ---oack.

E.

The pre-Islamic Allah accordi"Q to the Koran:

The Koran is another important source of


information concerning pre-Islamic religion.
SQra

XXI,

According to

51(52) - 70 father Abraham already warned his

p eopl e to dispose of their idols and to serve Allah the only


true god.

This a necdote,

however,

implies a connection

with the Jewish r e ligion to which we will return at a lat e r


201
stage in our discussion
). The Koran testifies that in
difficult times the h eath en Arabs turned to Allah,

" d"1S t ress 202) .


on 1 y gord. 1n
back into polytheism.

In times of comfort th ey slid

They regarded Allah as the supreme

god who possosses the earth and everyt hing on it,


~s

their

who si ts

lord on his h eaven ly throne and rules th e Universe as

king 203 ).

They swore solemn oaths by Allah 204 ).

Above all

67
they recognized him as the creator205 ) and the glver of
rain206 ).

They believed that the life of every individual

was determined by the will of

All~h207). Their great sin

in the eyes of Mohammed was that they acknowledgEd other gods


beside Allah 208 ), more particularly the three goddesses
Manat,

Allat and al- c Uzza,

All ~h209)_
C:l.

the so-called daught ers of

Fjurl!Lh ermo.re the pagan Meccans derived the

authority to do things described by the Koran as an abomination


from Allah,

claiming that it was the custom of their

ancestors and the command of Allah

210

),

In their turn the

Meccans took offence in Mohammed's doctrine of the re


surrection and maintained that he is' inventing lies against
Allah 211 ).

The polemic of the Koran implies that the


pre-Islamic Arabs often experienced Allah as some distant
unapproachable god.

Their idols then serv e d the practical

purpos e of being intercessors through whom they could


212
communicate with him
). This was in fact their justification
for the worship of the partners of Allah 213 ).

One may e ven

find allusions to the celestial character of All&h in


Koran 21 L~)

It

lS

the

how ever extremely important to realise

that the unity of God,

polytheism or the final judge ment

was not the subject of the very oldest sQras of th e Koran


In fact these sQras

216

21=)

) reflect Mohamme d as a member of his

tribe whose int erests he shares and whose religion he


naturally follows.
Surat

Qurai~sh

Thus Mohammed advises his tribe in the

to worship the lord of the Ka c ba 217 ) in order

to ensure the security of their trade caravans;


contains

!lO

Sfira CVI

trace of his future breach with the QuraitL5

There is nothing to indicate that Mohammed is in opposition


with the religion of his co untrymen or that he intends to
found a new religion 218 ). In this context the original form
of Sara LIII,
Al~~t,

19 - 25, acknowledging the pagan goddesses

al-cUzz~ and Man~t,

finds its natural setting.

Later when the relation between Mohammed and the Meccans was

severed

219

and. when monotheism became a central theme of

his preaching these verses were changed and the goddesses


described as "naught but names,,220).

In spite of the

hostilities between Mohammed and the Meccans,

he insisted

that he was continuing the religion of the ancestors of the


Arabs in its original pure form

222).
+remove th
- e parvners
glven t

221
0

).

His object was to

AllAh
_a b y th e

~pag ans .

This

monotheistic trend was developed in no small measure before


Mohamm e d and finds its concrete expression in the term
hanif.

It is therefore to be expected that there will be

no g reat or essential difference between the Islamic and


the pre-Islamic concept o f Allah 223 ).

F.

Hubal and Allah:

The reference of Mohammed to the "lord of


the Ka c ba,,224) at the beginning of his career and even the
later reference to the only god Mohammed worships,
the
22 r - )
"lord of the territory of Mecca" " ;> ,
could signify to the
Meccans only one god viz . Hubal.
importance in the Kacba of Mecca

Hubal was the god of fir s t


which

a statue depicting him in human form

22G

).

contained
Wellhausen poin ted

out the remarkable fact that the Koran contains no pol emic
a gainst Hub a l whereas Mohammed as well as hi s oppon ents
c
acknowledged Allah as lord of the Ka ba 227 ).

He

suggested

that Hubal was th e ori ginal proper name and Allah originally
the appel l ative of the lord of the Kacba.

name All~h

Consecutiv ely the

replaced the na me Hubal completely22B).

This id entification is,

proved by'the available facts. Our

however,

knowledge of

not yet

Huba1 229 )

is too scanty and the lack of any polemics by Mohamm'2d


a gainst him may purely have be en for the same tactical
r eason h e associated Allgh with the Kacba.

Furthe r mor e a

s ev e re critici s m of the statued Hubal can be point ed out


at a

l_at e ~

stage of the prophet's c a reer.

No Mecc a rl could

fail to underst a nd t4e implications of the s tory how Abraham


ridiculed and r e jected the idols of his peopl e .

This story

and othe r similar outri ght r e j e ctions of idolatry


occur
.
230)
frequ ently in lat e r parts of the Koran
During th e
ill-fated encount e r at

Uhu~

. out 'Allah is most hi gh'


'High Hubal,23 1 ).

Mohammed had the courage to call

in reply to Abft Sufyan's exclamation :


,

G. -Moslem authors and Allah b e fore Islam:

The prejudiced account of pre-Islamic r e ligion

by Mo s l em writers,stemming from a p e riod wh en th e memory

of the Dj a h ilJ:ya \vas no longer c lear in the mind2 3 2),


of littl e use for our pres ent purpose.

1S

The most i mpressiv e

work of this kind is the Kitgb al-Asnam of Ibn al--Kal oJ:, -t he

- - - - - -23 3 )
.
From
well--ku owu historian of th e s econd c entury A .H.
n

70.

this source we can only add a report about the Khaulan,


tribe of the Yemen.

They used to divide their crops

and

cattle between the god cUmynis / cAmm'anas and All~h,


th e f ormer In
. th e d'IVlslon
. . 234)
.
f
_avourlng

The Quraish were the dominant tribe in Mecca


1n the sixth century after they secured political supremacy
over the ruling Khuzaca when they abandoned their nomadic
life in the last quarter of the fifth

cent"~J AID~35).

prehistory of the Quraish 1S hidden in obscurity.


Margoliouth236 ) collected references to them from
writers which are of interest for our subject.
them CAlf,

Secondly it was said that Kutha,

Knt~a

D. S.
Moslem

According to

cousin and son-in-law of the prophet,

that the Qurai_sh were Naba taeans from

The

declared

in Me sopotamia.

the name of a town on the

Euphrates was also the name of Mecca,

or part of it.

Furthermore the Quraish were known in Arabia as the family


of Allh.

It seems possible that

which Allat was the female,


Qurai~~.

All~h,

the male deity of

was the tribal god of the

According to ancient custom to worship the local

territorial god(s),

the

Qurai~!2,

when they became supreme,

gave their deity a place beside the deities of older tribes,


suc~ as Al_cUzz~,

Al-Lat and Manat.

Mohammed rejected

this "associating!! (shirk) of Allah with other gods and


identified him with the object of monotheistic adoration.
In our previous chapter it was pointed out that Nabataean
namps containing the theoforic element Allal2: are in abundC):nce.
If the evidence collected by Margoliouth can be accepted 237 ),
the l'Tabataea.n
1'''1ec ca.

Qurai~b.

introduced Allah from the North into

H.

Pr~_ = )s)am.ic use of the name

Allah . by Chris tians:

Christianity spread to the Arabs at an early

?A8)

date-)

while the Arabian dffie~s also provided anathemized

sectarian groups with safe shelter against orthodox


persecution.

Although it is no t possible to identify all

the different types of teaching representing Christianity


in Arabia before the Islam,

S strong

Judais~ic ~endency

the general impression is that


was prevalent

Z39J .

In the sixth

century the most important Christian groups in Arabia were


Monophysite and Nestorian.
the language of the
Syriac word for

II

Chu~ch.

God" viz.

Arabic by a l lah.

Both these groups used 8yriac as


It is only natural that the
a~laha

would be presented in

This led to the identification of Allah

with the God of the Bible,


/

a way accidental 2 +0 ) .

an iden tification which was in

Thus it is not surprising to encounter

the name Allah in the poetry of Christians like the renowned


CAdi ibn Zaid 241 ) . . In fact the Koran itself accepts a priori
that the Christians worship Al lah 242 ). This confluence of
the Syriac and Arabic words facilitated the spread of
monotheistic ideas and th e association oisuch idea s with

I.

Pre-Islami8 use of the name Allah by Jews in

A r_~~bia:

In the introduction to his Jewish Wars ,


written during t he last quarter of the first c entury A.D.,
the Jewi sh hj.storiographer Flavius Josephus 2LJ-3) refers to
Arabs int erested in th e history of the Jewish revolt.

This

evid ence points to th e presence of a more or les s substanti a l

number of J e ViS among the Arabs


"
cA
Qlya
0'"

J eWlS_.
. h

poet from

~8.ima,

became proverbial in Arabic,

'l1he loyalty of Samau' al ibn


to the north of Madlna,

while the Koran LXXXV,

4ff.

commentates on the persecution of the Christians by the

Jewish Icing Dhu Nuwas.

In fact the name

~1aclfna

is an

Aramaic 10anword244 ) which became the regular name of Yathrib


due to the strong Jewish element In the town 245 ). Evidence
of Jewish presence in Arabia can be multiplied.
context it is interestin6 to add
Deuteronomy ,

In this

onlJ that the Bl1re on

a Tannaitic Midrash dating from the second or

third century A.D.,

in its commentary on Deutr. 32:2 states

that God revealed Himself by g iving the Torah in four


languages viz.

Hebrew,

Rahm&n,

Greek,

A~abic

and Aramaic

246

).

the name used instead of the proper

-----. ~-

name of God in the Babilonian Talmud,

was according to the

South Arabian inscriptions also the name used by the Jews in

Arabia 21.1-7 )

In Arabic poetry of Jewish origin the name AIlgh

is used without any restriction causing one to think that


. they did not equa l it with the proper name
id entified it with the Hebrew

Yahw~~

h~'~16him248).

but rather

The Koran le aves

no doubt that Allah was also the name of the God of the
Jews 249 ).

Mohammed was well aware of the use of the name'

Rahman by the Jews - - as a matter of fact he himself


'Used

this

name

at one stage of his career

250)

He

explained that believers may use e ither the nnme Allah or


the name Rahman for they are both most beautiful names of t h e
same God

251 ) .

Without any doubt the Jewish i dea of God was

already present in Arabia in pre-Islamic times and associn.t e d


with the name Allah.

73.
J.

The Han ifs:

Under the term Hanff

.,-

we

understand people

who repudiated idolatry and held the same r e ligious .con


victions Mohammed was

later to propagate.

were generally neither Jews nor Christians,


certainly influenced by these monotheists.

Though they
they wer e
One of the most

His veraea

important Hanifs was Umalyaibn Abl aI-SaIto

express his belief ln the only god,

Allah,

creator

and

lord of th e world,

while his terminology is the same as

that of the Koran.

He believed in the resurrection,

the final judgement,

in Paradise and in Hell.

to unmistakeable heathen concepts,


found an i mportant

p~ace

in

In addition

the Biblical narrative

in his poetry .

He was n eve r

converted to Islam but his teachings are so close to the


Koran that many scholars believe that at least a great
deal is forgery252).

Similarly Zaid ibn c Amr ibn Nufail rejected


the gods of his people in favour of Allah,
religion of Abraham.

following the

Zaid proclaimed that Allah requites

man according to his deeds and nothing can be hidden from


him.

There is no god beside Allah.

named him as creator.

By implication Zaid

He died before the advent of Islam

but Mohammed acknowledged him as a forerunner by allowing


prayers to be said on his behalf 253 ).

One more ?anif worthy of mention is Waraqa


ibn Naufal, ams.n v/el l ver sod in the Torah and the Gospel.

He

called himself a warner from Allfih,


lord of the

throne~

AII~h

the creator of man and

IS the sovereIgn of all that 1S

under the heavens who will remaln when everything else has
perished.

He was related to the Prophet and as such

. d an lmpOT"vant
.
~
.
exerCIse
lnfluence
on Mohammed. 254) .

In the preceding pages we traced the character

of

AII~h from sources of diverse backgroundo

and concluding chapter we will

In a following

have the opportunity to

present a synthesis of the evidence.

It should. however be

realised. that a synthesis of all the details of the mentioned


sources into a single concept will give an artificial and
even untrue picture of

All~h

words:

had. more than one connotation in

The name

All~h

before the Islam.

In other

pre-Islamic Arabia,

the exact meaning

context of its use.

Nevertheless the observant reader will

depend~ng

on the

have noticed a remarkable recurrence of the same basic


concept ion of 11 /Allfrh,

d.espite the diversity of the

sources and. whatever their particular differentiating views


may have been.

In fact a synthesis was begun by the Hanrfs

and consummated. by Mohammed.

Thus as far

8S

the name

All~h

is concerned Islam was the necessary outcome of the situation


in Arabia around 600 A.D.

You might also like